Soul Verse
by Leon Kirigaya
Summary: He lived an ordinary life until she stepped in and everything changed. Now that he has been reborn as a Shinigami, Ichigo must overcome the obstacles he will face along the way. Deadly enemies and life threatening situations lay ahead, but nevertheless he will not run, he will not back down. He will give it his all and emerge victorious. Join him in his fight. (Title Changed)
1. Chapter 1

Ok Leon here with another fic for my awesome readers; this one is something I cooked up after a burst of inspiration. I think you'll all like this one I got real creative here, and also I do not own Fairy Tail or Bleach etc etc. well anyway let's begin shall we….

*Screen goes dark*

Leon Kirigaya presents…

 **Bleach Reloaded**

 **Arc 1:**

 **The Substitute and the blond Shinigami**

 **The Faithful Encounter**

It was a regular day like any other in Karakura Town. The sun was setting symbolizing the end of that day as night is almost upon the town. And on a certain street in one of the residential areas a group of people can be seen; a small group of five delinquents and a High School student with bright orange hair, dressed in the uniform of Karakura High. One of said delinquents was currently lying face down on the ground as the other four were standing; one in front of him and the other three behind, all glaring at the teen that had just made one of their friends his bitch.

The one up front spoke up, displeasure clear in his voice. "You got a death wish kid? Nobody jumps one of my boys for no reason and lives to tell about it."

The orange haired teen just stood there casually with a bored expression, staring at the apparent ring leader in front of him with his hand at the back of his head. "Hmmm." was his simple reply.

"That's all you're gonna say?!" the leader exclaimed, raising his right hand with his fist clenched, ready to give the teen a piece of his mind.

However before he could do so the teen countered by lifting up his right leg and planting the bottom of his foot, shoes and all, square in the leaders face sending him straight to the ground which the teen then continued to repeatedly step in the leader's back. Over where the other three are they were currently cowering in fear.

"Lil Yama's down, we gotta help 'em!"

"Are you crazy?"

"No way I'm takin' on that psycho."

Looking back at the scene the teen repeatedly stomped on the back of the leader's head breaking up the ground sending his face further into the paved street, the muffled groans of pain the only thing coming from him.

Looking back up at the other three the teen balls his right hand into a fist in front of him. "Now listen up you idiots! You see that?!" he questioned as he pointed over to the small vase turned over on the ground by a pole with the flowers and water spilling out.

Following where he pointed the three spotted the vase, making sure they see it the teen spoke again drawing their attention back to him.

"First question; wha' do ya think that is? You, the one in the middle, answer!" he shouted again causing the three to shake more looking between each other, the one he asked for pointing at himself.

"You talkin' to me?" he gulped. "Well I guess somebody left those flowers for some kid that died here."

As soon as he finished the teen planted his foot in his face sending him to the ground like their leader.

"Correct!"

"Wait chill out!" pleaded the one on the left.

"Now the next question." The teen began. "That vase, why is it knocked over on it's side?"

The one on the right was the one to answer, "I uh, I guess one of us knocked it over when we were skate boardin' through here. We didn't-"

Before he could even finish the teen kicked both him and the other one across their faces sending them flying a few feet from him.

"You guys catch on fast. Now go and apologize or else the next time the flowers will be for you!" he exclaimed in warning, his face showing pure anger with his eyes mostly white.

Screaming like a bunch of bitches the group all flew up and scrambled away, yelping in fear and shouting."We're sorry!"

With them gone the teen sighed, looking back at the pole where a little girl appeared. Dressed in a red and white top along with a pair of white shorts, the base of a chain visible at her chest and her body can faintly be seen as she has passed on into the afterlife.

She looked at the teen with a smile on her face. "Thanks for helping me Mr."

He walked over to her and bent down to take up the vase, "Don't mention it. Those basterds deserved it anyway."

Setting it back up he told the little girl he'd be back tomorrow with some flowers for her, which she smiled and then faded away. As the teen walked home he felt as if he was being watched, by then the sun had set and it was dark out.

"Hi. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, sixteen years old. I go to Karakura High, and I'm not sure why but for a while now I've been able to see the spirits of those who have passed away."

As he made a right he entered his small yard, opening and closing the gate behind him he made his way to the front door of his house, which is also a small clinic. As he stepped in and closed the door, he was unaware of a blond girl that looked around his age, which was standing on a roof top a couple houses away. Said blond had her eyes on young Ichigo, after a few more seconds she disappeared with a slight sound. No trace of her left behind.

Entering the Kurosaki house hold, there was a loud crash followed by loud shouting. What was all the noise about? Well Ichigo also has the craziest father in existence. This nut job chooses to attack his son whenever the boy does something wrong. This man is named Isshin Kurosaki, he may appear to be a total dumb ass but he has a few secrets that you wouldn't even believe, he is also more involved with the supernatural than his son and two daughters even think.

"Ahh. What the hell was that for!?" An upside down Ichigo exclaimed, throwing himself back up to glare at his father.

Said man just smirked, "That, my dear son was for coming home so late, plus you're late for dinner again!"

"Ah come on! I mean I'm a high school student. 7 o clock is way too early of a curfew for me. Plus I was out tryin' to help a kid's spirit pass on!"

"SILENCE!" Isshin shouted. "Oh so it's the ghost fault now is it?"

The two started fighting again as always, meanwhile the two girls just ignored them and continued eating. On the left is Yuzu Kurosaki, she goes to middle school and is basically the mother of the house. Since she does most of the cleaning, and cooks most of the time as well. She inherited their mothers hair, dark orange, cut short with a little flower clip on the left side. Yuzu's currently dressed in a white top with some flower designs and white cargo shorts. She looked every bit of the little angel she is.

On the right is Karin Kurosaki, also in middle school but she is a little older than her sister. She got their father Isshin's hair, which is black, two long bangs framing the sides of her face and head, while the back was combed down. She had a bored, as ever, look on her face as she ate. Wearing a black T and black shorts, whereas Yuzu is bright and fully of joy, Karin is like the opposite of her. Being more neutral in her attitude towards almost everything, and doesn't care much about a lot of things.

Back over with the fighting son and father, Ichigo finally managed to knock Isshin down for the count. Going over to sit at the dinner table, he sat down and started eating while Isshin laid there unmoving.

Karin spoke up breaking the silence, "Hey Ichigo, I think you really did some damage this time." She said neutrally, that same bored and uncaring look on her face as she pointed at their father.

"Nah. Just give 'em a second." Ichigo replied. As soon as he did Isshin flew up from the ground like nothing happened, giving his son a thumbs up.

"Nice job son!" Isshin exclaimed.

"See?"

Karin just grunted in response as Isshin decided to walk off and go talk all manner of stuff to the gigantic poster of their mom and his wife, Masaki, which was passed up on the wall for all to see.

"Dad sure likes doing that." Yuzu spoke up finally, looking over at her father worriedly.

Karin followed her gaze, "Yeah, and it's damn annoying."

Ichigo grunted in agreement before getting up and heading to his room. Walking in and closing the door he threw his bag on the chair and flung himself down on his bed, letting out a loud sigh as he did so.

'This feeling… I can feel some kinda presence out there. But what is it? And why can I sense it?' he thought to himself. 'Being able to see spirits isn't really normal. And its only recently since I started seeing them…'

Suddenly he heard a loud roaring sound out in the distance, "What the hell was that?" he wondered aloud as he got up to look outside his window.

Meanwhile out further in Karakura town a lizard looking creature could be seen rushing forward, seemingly chasing after something. It had a white skull head with eyes that glowed yellow and a mouth filled with teeth. The creature also had a hole through its chest, nothing there to be seen.

With a flash of yellow and the sound of metal cutting through bone, the creature howled in pain before fading away as it had been slain. The same blond girl from earlier landed on the ground gracefully, making little to no sound, she looked around and sighed.

"Well that's another one down. This is so tiring sometimes, just how many of them are out there." She leaped away in the night sky, reluctantly continuing her patrol.

Morning came and Ichigo could be seen sleeping soundly in his bed, but then he opened his eyes suddenly, something was telling him that he should get up and run. Looking straight up he was met with the bottom of his father's feet, as Isshin dived down at Ichigo from the ceiling an alarming speed.

"GOOOOOD MOOORNIIING ICHIGOOOO!"

CRASH!

Ichigo had managed to escape just in time, he caught Isshin and threw him on the ground then stepped on his back repeatedly.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" he asked his maniacal father.

Isshin groaned and tried to stand, "Just waking my son up in the morning. Is that so wrong?" he managed to get out.

"That's no way to wake someone up while they're just lying there sleeping!"

"Oh yeah!? Well that's my way of doin' it!"

Groaning in annoyance he picked Isshin up and threw him out of his room and slammed the door shut.

Downstairs Karin and Yuzu were at the dinner table, Yuzu had just prepared breakfast for them all.

Karin looked up, "Sounds like dad's at it again."

"Yup. I've already gotten use to all the noise in the mornings, but Ichigo on the other hand… well he really hates it."

Karin grunted, "You got that right."

After a few minutes, and more of Isshin trying to catch Ichigo off guard, said teen came downstairs dressed in his uniform, stopping to tell his sisters morning and grabbing a slice of bread he headed out the door. Saying a muffled later as he locked the door.

As Ichigo walked to school he made a short detour and went back to where the spirit of the little girl resided, placing the flowers in the vase he called out to her but got no response. Shrugging he started back towards his main destination, as he reached to a more busy area of Karakura town everything was as it should be.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and a small explosion. Everyone went in a panic, running away from the area to get to safety, as Ichigo made to follow their move he froze in fear as a large creature of some kind rounded the corner and made eye contact with him. The beast had two long claws in front that looked more like blades made for slicing through anything, the head and face being mostly white with green eyes and a gaping mouth. The rest of the bests' body had a centipede look to it.

It narrowed its eyes and rushed forward, going after the easy prey that was Ichigo. Just before it reached him, he jumped out of the way and tried using a piece of steel he found to hit the monster, this however, had no effect. The beast swung with its right claw and almost sliced the teen's head off. Ichigo decided to make a run for it and turned around running like hell away from the creature, now chasing him down.

He wasn't fast enough though, and the beast was almost upon him. But just before it could touch him, someone else jumped into its path. Drawing her sword she sliced the creature right through the head, going straight down until her feet hit the ground and the monster cried in agony as it faded away into nothing.

Ichigo was dumbstruck, in front of his very eyes some girl had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and cut that monster down like it was nothing. The girl had long blond hair, reaching down mid back held in a ponytail by a dark blue ribbon. Her attire, to his surprise was that of a classic kimono looking robe, straight black with a bit of white around the neck area and a white sash around her waist. The blond swung her sword to the side to whip off some blood on the blade, then she sheathed it and started walking off. But not before casting a glance to the orange haired teen before she disappeared, Ichigo called out to her but found that she was already gone.

At this point people started pouring in, looking at all the debris fallen all over the place, along with a damaged building. Putting what just happened to the back of his mind, Ichigo turned and started walking towards school.

The school day went as normal as always for the teen, a few periods, lunch, a few more and then it was the end of the day and the students were released to head on home. For some they headed to extra classes and others went to clubs. Ichigo made it back home with no encounters, but for some reason, he felt that that was going to change. And soon.

Laying on his bed he couldn't help but think about what happened today, the run in with that monster, almost getting killed, and then being saved by that blond girl wielding a sword. Who was she? Some skilled kendo club member who had gotten ahold of a real sword and decided to play hero? Or was she another spirit that somehow had such abilities?

Ichigo knew little about spirits, but he did know that they couldn't touch anything from the world of the living. Let alone be running around with swords and slaying monsters.

Then again he could be going insane and is seeing things…. Nah that's not it, everything that happened there today was definitely real. Thinking back he can remember that no one else had taken notice of the creature, the same goes for the blond sword wielder.

His thoughts were interrupted as a loud roar echoed through the skies, that's not good, it sounded close. A little too close for comfort. Then that's when there was a loud crash and the house started shaking, suddenly a huge hand came plowing through his room wall, springing from his bed he looked out the hole made and felt his heart rate increase greatly.

Standing outside his house was one, no two very big creatures that had the same holes through their chest. They narrowed their eyes at him and, one of them did something that he never expected, it spoke in English, something that shocked the teen.

"We finally found you. You little runt." The creature growled as it reached in trying to grab the teen, Ichigo made a run for it to get away and ran out his room door and down stairs.

Where Karin and Yuzu were seen on the ground, seems the earlier crash sound was the kitchen wall which the two girls were standing right next to. And it looks as though Isshin wasn't home, just freaking perfect. He had no time to rush over to them as another hand tore through his house and tried to grab him.

Dashing to the left he dodged and went to go grab his sisters, picking them up he made a run for it again, this time outside. Making a right turn he ran as fast as he could while carrying his sisters, behind him the two creatures were chasing his tail. And as if by some miracle, Ichigo's eyes caught a blur of blond hair and he felt relief as he knew that the one he was saved by earlier, had come to his rescue again. This time saving not only him, but his sisters as well.

Drawing her sword the blond slashed at the creature's hand, cutting it clean off. The monster howled in pain and disappeared to recover. Jumping back to avoid an attack, she leaped up again slicing at the beast. She didn't get a kill strike but she dealt enough damage for the creature to retreat. Landing back on the ground she kept her guard up and turned towards Ichigo, who had stopped running to watch his savior in action.

She gave him a small smile and spoke up, "You should get as far away as you can you know. Those things will be coming back soon to finish what they started."

He nodded and turned around to continue running, behind him he heard the roaring and howling as the monsters came back. He looked back and say her going at it. Jumping, spinning, twirling. She looked as though she were doing a ballet routine. However she made a mistake in her moves and lost focus, taking this chance one of the creatures swung its claw at her and it connected right in her back. Screaming out in pain she fell back to the ground as blood from her back left the wound in a small spray and her sword fell from her hands.

This isn't good, she's trouble. Big trouble. Ichigo couldn't let this happen, he had to go save her before those two things kill her. Stopping next to a yard he placed Karin and Yuzu against a wall where they wouldn't be seen and raced back towards the fight. The blond turned around and braced herself up on her elbow, reaching for her sword she grabbed it and held it n defense as the two beasts made their way to her.

"AHHHHHH!" Was all she heard as the orange haired teen rushed into the fight on top speed.

'What the hell is he doing!?' she thought.

The two monsters were distracted slightly by the battle cry Ichigo had made, though not as fierce as it could be, it was good enough. He skidded to a stop and grabbed the blond, picking her up bridal style he made a run for it once more.

"HEY! PUT ME DOWN!" the blond exclaimed.

"No way!" he replied, still running like hell.

"You idiot! You can't outrun them, your just going to get yourself killed!" she tried to get out of his grip. "Put me down and get out of here!"

Ichigo didn't respond, instead making a few turns to get away quicker. This failed as the creatures kept up the chase. The blond saw that this was futile and decided to get out of the teens grasp and try her best to fight. She used her free hand to hit a pressure point on his body and he tripped and fell, landing on top of her.

Getting up and rubbing his head he looked up at her, "Hey what gives!?"

"Stop complaining and go. I can fight now." She pushed him to the side and started standing up, "My wound has already started to heal."

True to her words the wound on her back had truly looked to be healed somewhat. Ichigo asked her if she were sure and she nodded, he gave her a single nod and stepped away. As the two reached them the blond started fighting them with all her skills put in, she had to win, she just had to. A single mistake could mean death here.

Ichigo stood a good distance away watching her, she was skilled, her graceful sword dance from earlier could attest to this. However, she was already wounded and she was now showing signs of fatigue. She wasn't gonna last for much longer. What Ichigo heard next made his blood run cold. Two more sources of roars came from behind him and to his right, looking towards the source he froze as he saw two more of those creatures, with different appearances, heading their way.

"Oh shit!" he exclaimed as he realized they were heading right where the fight between the three were happening.

Suddenly the blond found herself surrounded on all sides, as if on some que they all lunged at her. Swinging and slashing their claws at the girl as she tried her best to maneuver around them and make strikes when she got the chance. She was fighting gallantly but she suffered too much damage, and now it started to take its toll as her movement slowed.

One of the monsters behind her got an opening and too it, slashing her on her right side close to her chest. She screamed out in pain again as she collapsed on the cold ground below her. Her sword fell from her hands as it looked like this was her last moment alive. She had a good run, had a good life. But it comes to an end now…. Just as the blond accepted her fate, she heard someone shout out.

"HEY!"

The creatures stopped and turned towards the sound, seeing the orange haired teen standing a few feet away from them, they all roared and narrowed their eyes in response.

Ichigo stared them down, not showing any fear, "You damn ugly basterds are such cowards. Ganging up on a single girl like that… FACE ME INSTEAD!"

The blond felt a sudden burst of warmth in her heart, was this what it felt like to have someone put their life on the line for you? She didn't know the feeling, but this could be it. As the creatures roared and rushed towards the teen, she felt fear rise up inside her again.

"I… have to do something." She muttered weakly, sitting up she placed her right arm in front of her, palm open. Placing the left arm on her right she took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and gathered her energy. Opening them back she was ready.

"Hadō Number 33, Sōkatsui!" she exclaimed as a massive blast of light blue energy fired from her opened palm towards the monsters.

Seeing this, Ichigo dived out of the way as the blast sent them all flying back. The blond had put a good amount of her energy into that blast, she didn't want to do this, but she has no choice. If she dies here, then those things get just what they want. At least with Sōkatsui she bought them some time.

Ichigo rushed over to her, kneeling down beside her he looked her over. "You okay?"

"Do I look okay wise guy?"

He gave her a blank look, "Whatever." He looked towards the four creatures that had already gotten up and started making their way back to them. "So, what now?"

She looked at them, then back at him and sighed. "I can't fight anymore, I have too much injuries to take all four of them down. However there is one way we can make it out of this alive."

"What's that?"

She looked him deep in the eyes as she spoke, "To save the both of us… you have to take my sword and run it through your chest."

This caught Ichigo off guard.

"Wait what? Are you nuts? That would kill me."

"Do you want to save yourself, and your sisters or not!?" she shouted now, it was either now or never. He must do this.

"Yeah. I do."

She smiled a little, "Good, by doing this I'll be able to transfer half of my power to you, all you have to do it run my blade through your chest." She finished as she raised her sword to him.

Ichigo smiled, "Then give me that blade, sword wielder."

She smiled warmly at him, "My name is Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia."

"And my name is…." He took her blade in his hands and drew it close to his chest, as the creatures closed in on them Ichigo accepted what was going to happen next, and whether it would kill him or not, he didn't care. It's now or never.

"Ichigo Kurosaki!" he pulled the blade forward and drove it straight through his chest, suddenly and explosion of energy enveloped the two. Blowing the creatures back as vast amounts of energy emerged from the area. As the dust cleared, he stood, staring the enemy down as he prepared to annihilate them.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Substitute is born

Previously on Bleach Reloaded…

"To save the both of us, you have to take my sword and run it through your chest."

Ichigo was taken aback, "Wait, what? Are you nuts that would kill me."

She looked at him seriously, "Do you want to save us, AND your sisters or not!?" she shouted.

Taking the blade of her sword he positioned it at the center of his chest as he smiled at her, "Then give me that blade. Sword wielder."

She smiled back, "My name is Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia."

"And my name is…"

As the creatures drew close he did what he had to do, no regrets, no going back… it's now or never.

"Ichigo Kurosaki!"

He drove the blade forward sending it straight through his chest. What followed was a huge explosion of spirit energy, and as the dust cleared, he stood, staring the enemy down ready to eliminate them.

The Substitute is born

Lucy coughed as the dust cleared, looking around with a confused look on her face she had no idea what really just happened to her. She had only meant to transfer a fraction of her spirit energy to Ichigo but, somehow, he had managed to take the majority of what was left in her. She looked slightly different as well, her black Shihakushō had been replaced with a white robe instead, and her Zanpakutō was also gone.

She looked down on herself, lifting her hands she stared at them in slight shock. "What the hell happened? I only wanted to give him some of my power, but he took almost all of it."

She looked up at the teen. There were differences, she noted, his normal clothes were gone and he now had on a black Shihakushō like hers. Another noticeable, very noticeable in fact, was the huge broad sword on the teen's back.

It had a long handle, wrapped in a red cloth that showed the inner part of it through diamond-like designs. The guard, rectangular with slightly curved edges, silver in color. The blade itself was long and slightly thin, almost the length of the teen himself. The edges of the sharp end had silver along it, running from the base of the guard to the tip of the blade. The dull end had black running from base to point.

Lucy couldn't believe her eyes, this kid had managed to take so much of her spirit energy, and the energy coming off of him in waves was way higher than she ever thought possible for a human. Even one with special abilities, it was just unreal. Then there was the sword, it was simply huge. She had never seen a Shinigami wield such a big Zanpakutō.

Ichigo stood and stared the creatures down, for some reason after standing back up again, they hadn't just charged at him like they would normally do. Instead they stood there and stared back at him, some of them tilting their head to the side, as if estimating him or something.

He wasn't going to give them the chance to strike first however, "Now listen up you fuckers. You made quite a mess here, and not only that you also put my little sisters, and this young lady here in a lot a danger."

His only response was a growl as one of them stepped forward. Looks like that one is itching for a fight, Ichigo thought.

"Well I say you've had your fun, time to take you all down!" he shouted and sprang into action. The monsters followed his move intercepting him. Dashing to the side he dodged a claw and drew his sword, slicing through the creatures head and causing it to fade away. One down.

The one on the far left leaped up and launched some projectiles at Ichigo from its hands, he used his sword to block against a few before moving quickly to the beasts' position. Jumping after it he swung once, there goes an arm, he swung twice, and a leg went. Finally falling to the ground the monster let out a howl of pain. Ichigo landed on its head, and with one swift move, ran his blade through the monsters head. Two down.

The third one took the slight distraction and raced towards the teen, it swung its claw and slammed it against where the teen was standing. Lifting it there was nothing there, looked around confused the creature tried to find its target.

"Hey."

It heard from directly behind its head, as it spun around, its face was greeted with Ichigo's blade. Slicing right through as Ichigo used the move he saw Lucy do earlier that day. Standing and turning around he locked eyes with the last one, the fourth, which had decided to stay out of the fight.

With a look of anger Ichigo muttered, "Your next."

Dashing forward at an incredible speed he sliced off an arm, landing right behind the beast he turned and got ready for his next strike. The creature howled in pain as it had just lost an arm, turning to scowl angrily at the teen, the monster made a move towards him. He was ready however, jumping out of the path of a claw, Ichigo used his momentum to leap higher.

Coming back down quickly, he raised his sword above his head, preparing the final strike.

"IT'S OVER!" he yelled as he swung his blade, slicing straight between the eyes of the creature and going right to the ground with it.

The beast howled for the last time as it faded away into nothing. Ichigo sheathed his large blade and walked towards the blond kneeling on the ground.

Lucy stared at him in awe, she knew he could pull it off from the beginning, despite being out numbered. But she couldn't believe he did it so flawlessly, he didn't even have a single scratch on him, beginners luck maybe? Or maybe he was just that good already? Who knows.

As he got to her, Ichigo started feeling… somewhat heavy and weak. His head began to pound as a massive headache begun. Stumbling forward and gripping his head, Lucy wasn't shocked or surprised.

She gained a look on her face that showed a bit of pity for the boy, "It's only natural. Up until now he was a mere human, now that he's accumulated all this power at one time, he's gonna be feeling the effects as soon as he settles down and the adrenalin drains from his system."

Ichigo tried to hold strong but it was too much to handle, falling forward as he lost consciousness, Lucy did her best to catch him. Getting up and running weakly she made it just in time and caught the teen before he hit the ground. Smiling down at him as he laid in her arms fast asleep she smiled at him.

"It's okay. You did well, rest for now." She spoke softly in his ear, if she had looked at his face closely, she would have noticed the small smile on his face.

The next morning Ichigo woke up to his, strangely, quiet room. That's weird, why is it so quiet and calm in here? Normally his father would already be in his room waking him up the most abnormal was possible.

Looking around suspiciously and cautiously, he scanned the entire room. Nothing still, "Well at least I get some peace and quiet for once…" he trailed.

That's when it all came back to him, the events of the previous night came crashing back. Realizing that it wasn't all a dream, Ichigo bolted out his room. Running down the hall he skidded to a stop in front of Yuzu's room.

Opening the door quickly, he checked around, his sister not present. He went to Karin's room. But it was empty like the other. Fearing the worst, he ran down stairs, coming across the huge holes in the wall of the house, he felt his heart rate pick up. Where are his sisters? Are they alright?

Hearing a voice outside, he went towards it. Breathing a sigh of relief as he saw his two sisters, looking perfectly fine, not even a single scratch on anyone of them.

"Oh so your finally up. Thought you were gonna sleep for the whole morning." Karin acknowledged him, first.

Yuzu smiled at him, "Oh Ichigo, glad you're alright. Can you believe this?"

Pretending he didn't know anything he asked the first question that came to mind, "What the hell happened?"

Karin shrugged, "I have no idea. When I woke up, I found all this."

Yuzu nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I can't even believe we slept through all this. I wonder what caused it."

At that moment, Isshin showed up. "Hey guys what's goin….." he trailed off as he, pretending to, took notice of the condition of the house. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?"

"That's what I asked." Ichigo added.

"Well anyway, come on guys. Ichigo you should go get ready for school. And dad, clean up this mess." Karin said the last part neutrally, making Isshin groan in response.

"Aww come on. Why me?"

"Because you're the adult, now stop whining and go…" her voice slowly got lower as they walked inside the house.

Ichigo stood outside for a moment, the girl from last night came to mind. The blond that saved his live, and his sisters lives also. What was her name? Lucy? Yeah, that was it. Lucy Heartfilia, he wondered where she was, maybe she went back to where ever she resides. Well maybe its better that way, he didn't really like the idea of being involved with her. She had this kind of mysterious aura about her, or something like that. Who knew what, or who she was involved with. Whatever it may be, he thought it be better to stay out of it.

Though some answers to what all this is and means would be nice…

After getting ready Ichigo left the house and went on his way to school, as he walked past am alley, he got the unsettling feeling. A feeling he didn't like one bit. Stopping to look around, he thought that maybe going through all that stuff last night, he was just on edge.

"Hmmmm…" putting the thought in the back of his mind, he continued walking away.

Arriving at school Ichigo was met with the most annoying voice he came to know. Yes, it is the voice of one Keigo Asano. Running towards the teen while shouting like a damn nut job.

"ICHIGOOO." He drew out the letters annoyingly as he came closer to said teen.

Raising his hand and putting it to the side, Keigo collided with his bicep and fell to the ground with a small thud.

"Morning Keigo." Ichigo said as he continued walking with a bored look, unamused as this had become a regular thing almost every morning.

Mizuiro, another one of Ichigo's friends, stood to the side shaking his head at the fallen form of Keigo.

"Man. You really are an idiot aren't you?"

Keigo sprung up, "No I'm not!" he pointed at Ichigo dramatically. "He's just a big buzz kill!"

Sighing Mizuiro walked back to the class as Ichigo entered. Taking his seat, the orange haired teen starred out the window.

"By the way Ichigo, how come you're so late?" Mizuiro asked curiously.

"Ah its nothing. Which class do we have next?"

"That would be chemistry." He smiled deviously as he knew Ichigo despised the subject.

Much to Mizuiro's amusement, Ichigo groaned and dramatically flung his head down, forehead first, onto his desk, "I really hate that damn subject."

Getting all gloomy as a dark atmosphere surrounded him, the others sweat dropped at his ways and chuckled.

There was the sound of joyful humming as one of the most beautiful, and busty girl in the whole school, came walking inside the class. Her auburn hair swaying as she walked along with a radiant smile on her face.

Orihime Inoue

She's considered the flower of Karakura High, as she hardly gets upset and draws a lot of attention. From both boys and girls, especially some of the junior girls, that idolize and respect her.

Spotting Ichigo, she smiled and skipped over, "Hey Ichi-" She stopped herself as she noticed his current state. "Umm, what's wrong with him?" she asked the two others there.

Mizuiro answered, "Oh he's just all gloomy cause we have Chemistry next." He snickered.

Ichigo's head popped up, "Hey it ain't funny. That subject isn't easy." Taking notice of Orihime standing there, oddly enough, staring at him curiously. He put on a small smile. "Hey Orihime, you okay?"

She didn't answer for a moment, as if lost in some kind of trance, after a few seconds she snapped out of it and shock her head rapidly a bit. "Oh I'm fine!" she smiled back at him.

They started chatting away as a certain blond walked up. "Hi, you must be Ichigo." She greeted.

And as Ichigo saw her face, he instantly recognized who it was. Shocked out of his mind he couldn't believe who it really was. No way… what the hell is she, of all people, doing here? And why?

"W-What the hell!" he exclaimed as he sprung up from his seat, pointing a shaking finger at her. "It's you!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" the blond asked innocently.

Orihime eyed the blond suspiciously, for some reason she could feel some kind of weird vibe coming from the girl. Raising an eye brow she cut in, "You two know each other?"

"Of course not, right Mr. Kurosaki?" she asked again casually.

Ichigo just stood there dumb struck. The two guys looked amused by all this.

Keigo piped up, "Yeah of course he doesn't know her. This here is Lucy Heartfilia, new transfer student. Isn't she a cutie?"

Lucy laughed awkwardly as Keigo starred at her with heart eyes, she also took a step back. "Yeah. Anyway." She took a step towards Ichigo, who had now calmed and was staring at her like she was gonna hit him. Reaching out towards him with her right hand, she offered a hand shake.

"Lucy Heartfilia, as Keigo said. But just call me Lucy, Nice to meet you." She smiled kindly.

Looking at her hand, and back at her rapidly. Ichigo decided not to be rude, taking her hand in his he shook it. "Ichigo Kurosaki, just Ichigo will do. Nice to meet you as well."

Releasing hands, Lucy gave him a curt smile and turned around to walk back to her seat.

As the others did the same, Ichigo frowned. Just what the hell is your game? He thought.

Two agonizing periods of chemistry class later, Ichigo came out of the lab looking really annoyed. Keigo and Mizuiro chuckling as they walked out after him, to them it was just fun watching him get all grumpy over things that ticked him off.

He stopped walking and turned to the two, "You guys go on without me, I got something to do." Or rather _someone_ to interrogate. He thought to himself.

Mizuiro shrugged, already thinking of the most likely reason. "Okay no problem, come on Keigo let's go." He had to grab the boy and drag him away as Keigo opted to stay behind. Turning and going around the corner they were now out of sight, good.

Lucy walked out of the lab a minute later, noticing Ichigo standing outside and staring expectantly at her, as if waiting for her. She knew what he wanted. Answers.

She walked up to him and looked up at his face, smiling sheepishly she spoke. "I have a lot of questions to answer don't I?"

He answered almost instantly, "Yup, so come along. I know a place where we can talk in peace."

He walked off and she followed in toe, admiring how cool he looked when walking in front of her. She was interested in this boy, for some strange reason, and she wasn't sure why. Yeah he has potential, that much she's sure of, and with the proper training and experience she knows he'll be a fine Shinigami.

Ichigo led her to a more isolated area of the school's roof, it was another platform of the roof that rose a little higher and had a set of stairs to get up to it. The school's observatory, that's what's inside the medium sized room on the platform. Going around the side where no one could see them well, with a nice view of the town and the horizon, they sat down on the ground and placed their bags to the side.

Ichigo looked around for a moment, checking to see if they were no unwanted eaves droppers. Seeing that they were alone he took a breath and began.

Turning to her, he looked a little serious. "First I wanna know why you're here."

Lucy could see that he wasn't exactly asking, rather ordering her to spill it. Sighing, she decided what the hell. He was already involved due to what went on last night so why hide info?

She folded her legs and began, "Well last night when I transferred my power to you, I only meant to give you a small fraction, but somehow you took almost all I had. So due to that, my spirit energy is so low I don't have enough to get back to the Seireitei."

He looked confused, "Seirei- what?"

Sighing she shook her head, forgetting he won't know anything about that. "It's Seireitei. And it's the place where souls that have 'past on' go to. Also known as the Soul Society."

He looked as if he got it, or might have. "So then, you mean to tell me there really is a place like that where souls go to?"

"Yes, it's also where the Shinigami resides. There is an entire stronghold there that's more like a small city or town; the headquarters of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads." Seeing his clueless face she reluctantly went on. "The Thirteen Court Guard Squads or Gotei 13, is the base of operations, and where we Shinigami primarily reside."

"So, it's like a giant base or something like that right?"

She nodded, "Yes. There are thirteen squads in total, as the name says. And each squad has its own captain, as well as a lieutenant. But that's all I'll be saying on that matter. Now as for you, well your very much involved now whether you like it or not."

Frowning he narrowed his eyes at her, "What do you mean I'm very much involved?"

She starred at him for a moment, she kept up a good poker face, but it was failing as she felt nothing but regret for bringing him into all this. Which, eventually, will be extremely bad for him in the long run.

Sighing again, she let her sadness show, "Well Ichigo, giving you my spirit energy made you a Shinigami. But you're not a true Shinigami, you're a Substitute."

"So then, what does this all mean?" he asked seriously.

"It means, we both might have a slight problem sooner or later." Seeing that he was going to ask about what she just said, she cut him off before he could say a word. "I won't say because you'll only worry about it. And I don't want that."

Looking her in the eyes Ichigo saw that she truly won't be saying. Sighing, he brought a hand to his face. "Jeez… what the hell did I get myself into?" he asked himself aloud.

"Your gonna find yourself asking that question a lot." She mumbled under her breath. "Well in any case, you have a bit of a new role to take care of. You are not the Substitute Shinigami, thus, it's now your job to exterminate the hollows that appear here and keep this town protected."

She finished with a small smile, Ichigo wasn't gonna have any of it. "No way in hell. I never signed up for anything like that, so you can just forget it."

Growling at him, Lucy smacked him on his head. "Whether you like it or not, Ichigo, you're in this completely now that you're a substitute Shinigami. Do you understand? You can't just say you're not getting involved just because you don't want to, you basically chose this path when you took my blade last night and ran it through your chest. Even though I didn't tell you about all this specifics, but regardless, what's done is done. Take responsibility for your actions."

She said all this with the most serious look on her face that he's ever seen since they met, excluding the one she gave him last night. But instead of seeing things her way, the teen looked away from her. Not willing to listen.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"This is not a request Ichigo. This is your responsibility now, you have no other choice but to do as I said to keep things in order."

Scoffing he got up and took a few steps away from her, turning back to face her, he didn't look pleased. "Just who do you think you are? Just because I unknowingly chose that path by doing what I did last night, who the hell says I gotta do shit? You don't have any damn right to tell me what I can or can't do."

"How can you be so resentful here? Don't you understand?"

He scoffed again, "Shut the hell up will ya. I said I ain't doing a damn thing."

Lucy looked a little furious this time, standing up, her eyes couldn't narrow any further with the way they already were. "Ichigo." She growled his name as her hair started flowing up behind her wildly a bit. And the wind started picking up a little.

Ichigo started to feel a little heavy, not the same as how he felt last night after he got done taking those hollows down. This felt as if there was some force, almost like gravity, pushing down on him. What the hell is this? He wondered, then he noticed her hair, and also the way her clothes seem to flow along similarly to her blond hair.

And that's when he remembered the one thing to never do when dealing with a girl. Never make her mad.

Whatever this was, it was coming from the girl in front of him. Taking a step back, he looked more wary than pissed off. "Now calm down. I was only a little upset is all." He tried to ease her, but it wasn't working.

She gritted her teeth, her spirit energy still flowing out a little. "Listen to me, and listen good."

He knew this was not a request either, so he kept quiet and listened carefully.

"Every minute, of everyday, a hollow appears in this town. We haven't been able to figure out why they like this place so much, but regardless of that we have to do everything we can to make sure they don't get their way. Wanna know why? Because these creatures thrive on eating the souls of the living and also already dead, body-less souls, that wander around."

Pausing to make sure he's listening, and seeing that he was, she lowered the slight release of her energy and continued.

"As they eat more and more souls, they become stronger and stronger. Eventually becoming so strong that only a captain level Shinigami is capable of dealing with them. This causes problems for us because once this actually happened, and a number of lieutenants were sent along with a few lower level Shinigami to deal with the threat… they all died as they were outnumbered for one, and out matched in terms of power levels.'

"This was a horrible mistake as our Head Captain hadn't estimated the situation the best way because we didn't know exactly just how powerful they were." Stopping the release of her energy completely as she fully calmed down, she sealed it back in again and went on. "The point is, Ichigo, you have to be the one to protect this town. Your town. Because I can't do it now and we don't know if they'll send any back up or anything. And if you let them run free and have their way, eventually this entire town would turn into a wasteland, void of life and forgotten like dust in the wind. Do you understand Ichigo?"

He didn't answer right away, instead looking like he was deep in thought. He took a look out at the town below, for a few minutes he remained quiet. Then he gained a determined look on his face as he looked up, turning to Lucy she blushed slightly at the serious look on his face and in his eyes.

"Yeah. I think I do… alright, I'll take my responsibility and my role, and do my best as the Substitute Shinigami."

Lucy smiled warmly at him. "I'm glad you were able understand Ichigo, thank you for taking this responsibility. And I'm really sorry."

He looked at her confused, raising an eye brow, "Sorry for what? I mean your only trying to help this town and me right?"

She looked away from him, "Yeah. But I'm just sorry for getting you in this mess…" she trailed.

He walked up to her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention. "Hey. Don't you even worry about it alright? Everything will be fine."

His voice and words were so comforting to her, but the truth is he has no idea what kind of things are out there. And that the path he chose is filled with danger and even death.

Putting on a forced smile, she looked up at him. "Yeah, your right. Thanks."

At this point, something started buzzing in Lucy's bag. Going to it and fishing around she found it and slid a finger across the screen to access the home screen. Tapping on an icon, a map came up on the screen with some words in a balloon that was pointing to a location on the map popped up.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked as he stepped up.

"Well we have orders. A hollow just showed up on the other side of town, our orders are to eliminate the target as soon as possible. Ichigo."

"Yeah I know. But how the hell do I change to that other 'me' with the sword?" he asked as he looked around himself.

Lucy snickered, "Oh don't worry, just stand still." She said while going in her bag again and withdrawing a glove with a skull and some blue flames and the color of the glove was red.

"Huh? Why?"

Before Ichigo could do anything. Lucy quickly stepped to him and nailed him in the forehead with her opened palm. As she did this, the Ichigo who had emerged and eliminated the hollows last night could be seen separating from the regular Ichigo, a few light blue strings stretching between the two bodies and then faded afterwards.

The regular Ichigo fell to the ground as the Shinigami side stood looking dumb struck. "What the hell!? What did you do?"

Lucy smirked at his reaction, "I simply pulled out your Shinigami side. That, Ichigo, is your spiritless body." She said as she pointed at his unconscious form laying on the ground.

This started him even more, "So. Am I, you know, dead?"

"No. not exactly dead. But in a way you can say, your body is in a kind of dead-like state. Don't worry, you can return to your body at any time."

He sighed in relief, this totally freaked him out. Being outside his body like this wasn't exactly a good feeling. Especially considering the fact that anything can happen to his real body and it might cause him problems.

He put his hand on his chin and stroked it, "Well I guess I can be cool with that. But what about my body, while I head to where that monster is to eliminate it, something could happen to my body here. And I think carrying it along would just slow me down."

Lucy was surprised at this, "Wow, you're really thinking this over. I'm a little proud."

"Yeah Yeah. So what do we do?"

Lucy hummed in thought, "Okay, this might not be a good idea. But let's hide your body in there." She pointed to the door at the side that leads into the room on the platform.

"Well I guess we don't have much of a choice, and we need to get going right?" receiving a nod from the blond, he grabbed his body and Lucy did some trick with her fingers to open the door.

Finding a corner good enough to hide his body in, he laid himself down with his back leaning on the wall. After making sure he was hidden best, he and Lucy left, the blond closing the door and then she got onto Ichigo's back and he leaped off the roof, heading towards the location of that hollow.

On the way there, Ichigo started to notice the feeling of the blonde's breasts pressing against his back, it was a pretty good feeling. Damn good. But thinking on it he started to get a little hot and bothered, he didn't notice this that much the previous night. That Kimono hides her chest pretty well. Shaking his head to clear the thoughts he sprung off a roof top and increased his speed.

As they came closer they could see the hollow prowling around, obviously searching for prey, landing a few feet away the creature took notice of their presence. It seemed to step back a little as if debating whether or not to take the orange haired teen on.

Ichigo started to put Lucy down, slowly so he won't trigger something off in the creature. "Alright Lucy. I want you to get some distance, you're vulnerable now so I'd hate myself if you got hurt here. So stay far okay."

As she got off and stood on her feet, she looked up at the back of his head, getting a safe and secure feeling for some reason. It's been quite a while since someone was like this with her, not even her own father… shaking her head she stopped those thoughts before they started to fill her mind. No, I can't think about that now. She placed them far away from the forefront of her mind and looked for a safe place to go.

Seeing a spot on a roof top a few block away, she turned back to Ichigo. "Okay, I'll be right over there. Be careful Ichigo. And here's a tip, when dealing with hollows, always strike the head with your blade and try to slice right through. That's the best way to take them out."

Receiving a nod from Ichigo as he drew his sword, Lucy ran off towards the safe spot she had picket.

Sword drawn Ichigo prepared to engage his target, "Alright then…" the monster seemed to accept his unofficial challenge and got into battle ready position. "Let's dance."

That said Ichigo dashed forward, the hollow following his move and coming at him fast with a claw drawn back. Dodging a swing of the creature's claw, Ichigo used the chance to swing his blade cutting off said clawed hand. It's hand falling to the ground, the hollow didn't howl in pain like the other ones from last night did. Instead drawing it back and looking at it angrily, this was odd, that's what Ichigo thought until it the arm he had cut off started to grow back. What the fuck?! Ichigo thought.

Over on top of the roof Lucy had chosen, she stared on in shock. "No… instant regeneration? That shouldn't be possible for a hollow of that level."

Looking back at the fight, Ichigo was at a loss. "You have gotta be kidding me… these damn things were already hard to deal with enough, but now this one can grow back limbs? So does that mean if I chop off its head will it grow back too?"

Stretching the arm, the hollow looked satisfied and charged at Ichigo again.

"Well. Only one way to find out."

Leaping in the air to jump over the beast, Ichigo bounced back after hitting the ground and charged at the beast from behind. As he jumped again preparing to slice the hollow's head in too, the monster turned at the last moment and slapped Ichigo away like a toy. The teen landing on the ground a few feet away.

Ichigo groaned in annoyance, "Okay. So that happened." Standing back up and picking up his sword, he looked deadly serious at the creature. "That's it. Time to end this."

Charging at the hollow he dodged a claw strike and slid under the hollow's legs. Using his momentum he sprung up and latched on to its back. The monster tried with all it had to pry him off but couldn't reach the teen. Running up to the shoulders, Ichigo jumped to the top of its head and then in one swift move he stabbed his blade in the hollow's head. As the creature tried best to take him off, Ichigo flipped himself up on the handle of his sword and maintained his balance upside down for a moment.

"This is where you die."

Twirling on his hands, he turned around and then used his wait to pull his blade straight down, slicing right through until his feet hit the ground. The hollow howled in agony as it faded away into nothing, as did the others who came face to face with the orange haired Shinigami.

As Ichigo flexed his neck, enjoying the slight popping sound that emitted, he thought that all was well and the job was done. That's when he heard a scream, fearing the worst, he turned towards the direction of the sound. Seeing Lucy on her the ground, trying to push further away from another hollow that had appeared.

Ichigo felt his blood run cold, "Shit!" he exclaimed as he dashed towards the blond in danger. Running as fast as he could.

Lucy was helpless, she was vulnerable at this time. Due to having most of her energy drained. Hitting her back against a wall, she couldn't go any further. As the fear welled up in her, she thought it was over.

Ichigo was close now, all he needed was a little more time to get there. The hollow, however, was closer. It brought up a claw, preparing to strike the blond. Swinging down, only mere seconds until Lucy was no more.

Ichigo exclaimed in fear, "NO…. LUCY!"

TO BE CONTINUED…


	3. I'll always be there

Chapter 3

I'll always be there

Last time on BLEACH RELOADED…

Lucy was helpless, having most of her energy drained she had no way to take this Hollow down. She could try to fight it, but she would just end up getting killed in the end because she's too weak now. Ichigo was close however, just a few more seconds and he would be there to help her.

The Hollow raised a claw, ready to take Lucy out of this world… as the Hollow swung, it seemed like it was all over for the blond Shinigami.

CLASH!

There was the sound of metal hitting metal that wrong through the air, looking up Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow Ichigo had made it. He struggled with the Hollow's claw for a bit before pushing it way and striking out at the creature. As he did so the Hollow backed out and took a defensive stance, standing up straight, he glanced back at her.

"I'll be back."

Leaping towards the Hollow the young Substitute began a violent clash with it, blade clashed with claw as the two fought for dominance. Drawing back the Hollow went for a low swing to get Ichigo's feet, he jumped up and rushed in. jumping up again he went for a killing blow but missed by an inch, he was smacked away but caught his balance.

He stood straight and wiped some sweat from his forehead, "This is starting to wear me out. Better end it quickly."

Dashing forward he went side to side, moving so fast it seemed like he wasn't even there, this confused the Hollow and gave Ichigo and opportunity to strike. Getting within range he took his chance and sliced down on the Hollow's head, ending its existence.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he glanced over to where Lucy was. She seemed fine, perfectly fine actually, some would expect a girl that had been inches away from death to be in shock for a while after, but Lucy looked okay.

Running a hand through his orange hair he took a good look at her as she walked up to him. She had a very worried look on her face.

"You okay?"

Before she even answered she walked right up and buried her face in his chest, knocking him back slightly.

"Uh, hey what's wrong?" he asked startled.

She said nothing, only rapping her arms around him and holding tight. At this point Ichigo didn't know what to do. After a moment, she leaned her head back, looked up at him for a second before letting go and stepping back.

"Sorry about that… I'm just glad you're alright. And also for saving me… Thank you."

Ichigo smiled at her, she really did have a soft side. "That's alright, don't mention it. But just know that I'll always be there to protect you."

Looking around she saw that it was all clear and no more hollows decided to give them a surprise attack.

"Well, let's get going. We should head back before someone stumbles on your body."

Ichigo stiffened, "Oh yeah I forgot about that."

Hopping on his back, Lucy held on to him tightly as he sprung off. Before they got too far away, Lucy looked back, she suddenly got the odd feeling of being watched. But she quickly brushed it off as her simply being paranoid and turned around to look ahead again.

If she had looked back longer, she would have seen someone step out from behind a nearby hedge. She looked to be around their age with bright pink hair tied in two short pig tails at the sides of her head with two bright orange ribbons. She had on white short shorts and thigh high black stockings, complete with a slightly darker pink blouse that was cut low to show some of her ample cleavage.

"Hmmm, a soul reaper? Not just one two. And that blond one, somehow I think I know her…."

Looking on as the two finally got out of her sight she turned and walked of. "Looks like the Seireitei is more active again. Well I think I'll introduce myself to them… things just might get more interesting around here after all."

Back at the school Ichigo and Lucy had arrived and Ichigo returned to his body. They only had three more periods left before the school day ended so they went off to class. At the end of the school day Ichigo and Lucy decided to leave together. Walking through the streets they were quiet for a while. Then Lucy spoke up.

"By the way, how did you get there in time? I mean you weren't close enough and yet you arrived just in time."

He hummed in though, "To be honest. I have no idea, while running towards you, at one point just before I got there in a flash a felt something kinda weird. I felt like I was running on air all of a sudden but it felt different than usual that time."

She looked a bit confused, "I might have been flash step, but if you achieved that so quickly then you are better than I thought… however, by what you just said I don't think it was your step. Then what was it…"

Her thoughts were cut short when she felt an odd presence, Ichigo noticed this.

"What's wrong?"

"No it's nothing. I'm just being a little paranoid."

He shrugged his shoulders and walk off, "Well alright then."

After getting to a certain point Lucy told him she will take the other way to her place, they said bye and went on home.

At the Kurosaki household…

Placing his bag down he sat at the table, "Hey guys."

Yuzu, standing in the kitchen with an apron around her waist greeted him with her usual cheery self. Karin also greeted, though with her usual stoic expression and tone.

"So where's dad?"

"Not sure, he called and said he'll be late but that's all he said." Yuzu answered.

"Ah well. Yuzu, call me when your done with dinner. I'll be in my room."

"Okay."

Picking his bag up he went upstairs to his room, flung himself down on his bed and sighed. He thought of the day's events, the close call with Lucy there. That could have ended badly, he's just glad he made it. But what bothered him a bit is how he did it. Lucy said it has wasn't his flash step, and he wasn't even sure himself what he did but regardless he is glad for it. He would never forgive himself if he let someone die all because he wasn't fast enough to save them.

Things are getting pretty dangerous though, those hollows are no joke. He can't even count how much times he came close to death in just a few days. But he doesn't plan on backing out though, no way. He is already in this, and now he feels inclined to keep doing what Lucy has been doing, protecting Karakura from those batards.

"That's why I made a vow to myself after I saved Lucy. I will always protect her no matter what. And also I'll keep protecting my town and my family…."

The next day started out like normal and everything at school was as it should be, Keigo went on with his usual madness, Mizuiro chastised him and Lucy just laughed as she looked on.

As she got her breath she wiped a tear from her eye, "You two remind me of Natsu and Gray."

Keigo looked up, "Huh? Who are they?"

"Oh just some old friends of mine."

"Oh, so how do Mizuiro and I remind you of 'em?"

She giggled, "Well. You're an idiot and Mizuiro is the smart one that always tries to keep you in line. Natsu is the idiot and Gray is the smarter one, get it?"

Keigo looked confused still, Mizuiro sighed in annoyance. "What she is saying Keigo, is that you are the 'Natsu' and I am the 'Gray'."

He stilled looked like he didn't get it, then it dawned on him. "Wait so that means she's calling me an idiot!"

Ichigo face palmed as Lucy sweat dropped and Mizuiro sighed.

Their teacher walked in then, as they noticed her everyone stood and gave a bow.

"Good morning everyone. You may sit."

As they did so she placed her things down properly and walked out to the middle of the class, "Okay guys, so today we have a new transfer student."

Turning towards the door she called 'come in' the door slid open and a girl dressed in their uniform walked in. Her bright pink hair caught everyone's attention and some of the girls murmured about how the bright orange ribbons in her hair complements the pink nicely.

Laying eyes on her, Ichigo picked up a weird vibe. So did Lucy, but not just them, even Orihime looked a bit curious while looking at the girl.

Coming to the front of the class she faced them and gave a bow while saying good morning.

With a cheery voice she said, "My name's Chelia Blendy. I'm glad to be here and hope we can all get along."

Finishing off she flashed a bright smile that made everyone blink at how cute she was like that, especially Keigo who seemed to be love stroke. Ichigo saw the boy's expression and shook his head.

'Looks like he just found his damn soul mate… Anyway…this girl is giving me a weird vibe. Feels just like when I saw Lucy for the first time. But there's more, she gives off a different presence, one that makes me feel extremely hostile.'

He watched as their teacher pointed to a seat next to him for the girl to sit. As the she sat down, Ichigo didn't look at her directly, he eyed her from the corner of his eyes. He caught when she eyed him as well, she had a look in her eyes that almost screamed 'I know what your secret is'.

Looking ahead he decided to look into it later, it's time for class anyway, and he should focus.

Lunch break came and everyone went about their usual ways, grouping up to eat with each other and so on.

Keigo jumped up and called Ichigo, "Hey what's on the agenda today? Rooftop?"

Ichigo shook his head, "Nah. I got some other stuff to take care of. Later."

"Oh come on Ichigo! We gotta have some real men time and talk about man stuff!"

The teen didn't even answer, just gave them a wave as he walked out. Getting to the hall he wondered where Lucy got off to, looking ahead he saw her. Leaning against a wall with her arms folded in front of her chest.

"Hey Ichigo."

"Hey, I assume you're thinking about a certain new student?"

She nodded in agreement, "So you felt it too huh?"

He gave a grunt. "Yeah, felt like when I came in contact with you before but different… makes me feel hostile, I think she means trouble."

"Yes, that's the way I felt. Really hostile, well I don't plan on doing anything just yet. Let's give it a while first." She looked forward then, up the hall.

Following her gaze he spotted the girl in question walking along.

"I think I'd prefer to wait and see if she makes a move towards us first. And if it comes down to it… I want you to take action right away and restrain her if you can. However… if it comes down to it you might even have to…"

She stopped there, looking Ichigo dead in the eyes. He had a grim look on his face then, with a small bit of regret but he nodded in agreement.

"Yeah… I know…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BLEACH RELOADED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chelia walked along the halls in a good mood, she was always a joyful person no matter what. That's the way her sister taught her to be after all. Looking down the hall, she saw the two she's currently interested in. And as they looked her way she caught them staring at her for a bit, then turning back to look at each other.

She giggled, "Looks like those two are talking about me, good. First impression was a success even though I didn't do anything but show up at their school and just so happened to be placed in their class. Just a bit longer, later on I'll make my approach."

Lunch break ended a short while after, and classes resumed for the remainder of the day. Throughout class Ichigo could hardly focus on what's going on. He kept thinking about what he might have to do later on if the girl beside him were a problem that would need to be eliminated. Said girl had actually interacted with him a couple times since the first class started.

Like asking him for a little help on some questions they got, involving math. Which Ichigo had a problem with much to his dismay. That one had been slightly awkward as he tried to explain as best as he could. After that they had two more periods of classes before they were done for the day. After those periods were over it was the end of the school day and students could be seen leaving the campus in groups and all, chatting and laughing while going where ever they were going.

Ichigo and Lucy were finishing up some work in their class assignment for their last class, after getting done most of the student body had cleared out as they headed towards the exit of the school. That's when they both felt a familiar presence. A presence both of them recognized right away, spinning around they looked around for the girl but they didn't see her. That's when they heard her.

"Well you two are cautious."

Looking towards the source of the voice, a bit upwards they saw the girl they sensed. Just casually sitting down with her legs crossed… in the air actually. She gave them a smile as they looked at her as if she had done something weird.

"What?" she asked, "Is there something on my face?"

Lucy shook her head then and looked around franticly, "What the hell are you doing!?" she rushed to the girl and grabbed her by the hand and pulled her down to the ground. "You can't just be floating here like that someone might see you."

Chelia looked at Lucy and then giggled, "Oh relax. No one is here right now the compound is empty, well except for a few other teachers and the janitor. But those teachers are at the staff room, and the janitor is all the way around the back of the school."

Lucy's eye twitched, "That doesn't matter, you could have been seen by someone." Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Lucy levelled a serious look on Sherria. "But now that you've basically put yourself in our grasp, I can interrogate you."

"Huh? For what?"

Chelia was about to pull away but Ichigo grabbed her hand, gently though.

"Now don't bother resisting, we won't hurt you or anything so just come along."

She looked between the two before sighing, "Oh fine. Lead the way."

They left the compound and made their way to a nearby coffee shop, setting their bags down as they sat, Chelia was the first to take up the menu and order herself a little treat. Lucy seemed interested as well but holding back, eventually she gave in an ordered something sweet. Ichigo just sighed, he knew she gave in because her 'girl side' couldn't resist even though it looked like she was all about business for this.

Getting what they ordered Lucy began, "Okay first of all, just who are you really?"

"Well like I said when I introduced myself, I'm Chelia Blendy. It's my real name if you're thinking it's made up."

Ichigo spoke up then, "Okay so let's say for now we'll go with that, either way it doesn't matter that much. What really bothers us though is the feeling we get from you."

"And that feeling is?"

"Don't think we can't tell what's really going on with you as it refers to your 'being'."

Chelia feigned ignorance, "Meaning?"

Leaning closer Ichigo lowered his voice, "You are not human. That much is obvious."

"Precisely." Lucy cut in, "So stop beating around the bush and tell us what your goal is."

All three fell silent then, Lucy and Ichigo giving the girl hard stares, while Chelia stared them down as well. Then all of a sudden she started laughing, Lucy looked at Ichigo and he just shrugged. He looked as clueless about the girl's behavior as she did.

"Oh my god you guys are so funny!" she held her stomach and laughed a little harder.

Lucy looked frustrated, "What's so funny?"

Calming herself Chelia, took a breath and met Lucy's eyes. "Well, to be totally honest I was just messing with you two. Earlier I thought it would be fun to do this my own way instead of just going along with your interrogation. But anyway, yes. You are right, I am not a human. And if you haven't figured it out I'm not exactly a Shinigami like little Lucy here. I don't have a Zanpakuto and Seireitei is not where I'm from."

Ichigo looked puzzled, "So if you're not a Shinigami… what are you?"

"Hey don't say it like that, you make it sound like I'm some kind of weird creature."

"Just answer the question please." Lucy added tiredly.

"Fine… I am what you would call a God Slayer."

Now Ichigo looked puzzled, "God Slayer? The hell is that?"

Before Chelia answered Lucy mumbled something that caught their attention.

"But that's not possible…"

Looking towards her she had a slightly shocked expression.

"What was that Lucy?"

Ignoring Ichigo's question she turned to Chelia.

"Are you really a God Slayer?"

The girl nodded, "Yeah I am. I swear it."

Lucy shook her head in denial, "This just couldn't be though…"

Ichigo could see something important is there that involves God Slayers, he placed his hand on Lucy's shoulder to get her attention.

"By the look on your face and how you sound I can tell there is something about this that's pretty important or something. Wanna tell me what this is about?"

Taking a sip of her drink, Lucy sighed slightly. "God Slayers are very rare people. They are beings that were taught the arts of the God Slayer Ᾱku. It is something that was created a few hundred years back by some Gods that ruled long ago, or so I've been told. I don't know all the details. But also Gods themselves actually taught a select few humans the God Slaying Arc."

Ichigo stopped her by holding up his hand, "So this God Slayer Ᾱku is basically teaching they received?"

"Well yes, but what I do know is that it makes humans that learn it incredibly powerful. By learning techniques and such that Gods were masters of. Let's say for example, we have a God that has the element of Fire as an attribute; that God would be able to teach the techniques and such involved with the attribute the God possesses to a select person. Basically when a person, Human or not, is taught in the ways of the God Slaying Ᾱku they would be able to, as it says, slay a God."

Ichigo looked as if he understood, Lucy went on.

"What really bothers me though is that from what I was told, God Slayers no longer existed. I was told they had died long ago during some large scale war. So hearing this girl say she is a God Slayer really surprised me."

Chelia smiled a bit, "Well, I guess you heard wrong. After all, I am right here in front of you right?" the girl's expression changed then, going to one of sadness. "But then again, I haven't met or even felt the presence of another God Slayer in so long. I didn't know anything about some war going on and wiping us out but hearing it from Lucy now… maybe I'm the only one left… and other God Slayers are dead…"

Ichigo didn't like that, the girl always looked joyful and cheery, seeing her like that now was so different.

Placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, Ichigo showed two of his many qualities; kindness and compassion.

"Hey it's gonna be okay. Don't jump the gun like that, more God Slayers might just be alive and are around. They could even be in hiding you know?"

Putting a smile back on her face she nodded, "Yeah your right. Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Lucy spoke up then, "So. Chelia, what God Slayer are you?"

Chelia smiled brightly with pride, "I'm the Sky God Slayer."

"Sky God Slayer?" Ichigo pondered aloud.

Lucy nodded, "Which means her element is air, also means she even has control of the atmosphere to an extent. I wouldn't be surprised if she could take away all the oxygen from the very earth."

The girl waved her hand in front of her in a meek gesture, "Well I don't think I'm capable of such a feet. But wow you sure know a lot about us Lucy."

Lucy Blushed lightly, "Well I do like to read a lot."

That statement was true all the way, Ichigo could attest to this as most of the time he saw Lucy when not in class, she would be with a book in her hand and her eyes would be glued to the pages. Ichigo could already figure that she doesn't just read history books and such, he knew Lucy also reads romance novels that has some pretty steamy scenes cause he came up behind her once and took a look at a few lines.

"Oh yeah, Lucy here likes to read ALL kinds of stories."

Both girls didn't miss the hint there, this made Lucy blush deeper and Chelia to giggle.

And Ichigo didn't stop there.

"Especially ones that involve a lot of dirty-"

Before he could finish Lucy smacked him upside the head, her face beat red.

"Oh shut up already you big idiot!"

Chelia burst out in laughter at the two, especially the look on Lucy's face. She may have just met these two, but she already felt like they were all great friends. Maybe this is just what she needed. Especially since…

She shook her head and stopped that thought before she started thinking about that, she didn't need to think about that now. The mood between the three of them had finally started to lighten up, she also didn't sense any tension from them anymore, and she didn't want that to change…

Lucy shook her head, Ichigo tried to bring up some of the lines from one of the stories and she finally had enough. The boy in question now lay on the floor unconscious with slight steam coming from his head.

Turning to Chelia, Lucy levelled a questioning stare. "Now back to the main thing here, I want to know exactly why you're here. I don't think that it's just a coincidence someone of your caliber, a God Slayer, all of sudden transferred to our school. So out with it."

Chelia sighed, "Okay fine. To be completely honest with you I'm on a… journey, you could say."

"A journey?" Lucy repeated.

"Yep." The pinkette answered as Ichigo got up rubbing his head.

"For what, if I may ask?"

Chelia hummed in thought, "It's a long story really. I guess you could say I'm in search of something. Friends maybe?" she asked no one in particular. "I don't know but that might be it, I've been kind of…. Lonely lately…."

She trailed there, Lucy decided to let it go since the girl didn't seem to want to say anymore.

Ichigo spoke up then, "Well if you ask me, we have nothing to worry about. She seems like a nice girl. Right Lucy?"

The blond hummed with her hand on her chin, "I guess so…"

"Well anyway I wanna get going, I should head home before my father gets antsy." He got up and began to leave, Lucy and Chelia following behind.

As they walked along the walk was quiet for the most part, until Chelia stopped suddenly and took Ichigo's hand.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Oh I just want to try something." Was her only reply as Ichigo and Lucy found themselves surrounded by wind.

Ichigo looked around franticly "What the hell!? Chelia what is this?"

"Oh calm down will you."

Next thing they knew they were in the air, very high at that, looking down at Karakura Ichigo was shocked.

"How did you-"

Lucy cut him off looking slightly impressed, "Well I'm not completely surprised but this is impressive. You did that quickly and managed to not draw any attention."

Chelia stood away from them at a decent distance, "Thanks, I try my best."

Lucy grunted, "Question is, why? Why did you take us up here?"

An evil grin slit Chelia's face, "Because I wanted to do, THIS!"

She sent off a wave of air that seemed to spread about and push away some of the nearby clouds, as it came towards them Lucy noticed what was threatening about the gust. It was packed with spirit energy. Pushing Ichigo out of its path Lucy went below and it missed her by a hair. It soon dissipated behind them.

"Oh?" Chelia mused, "Looks like little Lucy here isn't as powerless as I thought."

Ichigo caught his balance and looked at her, "Hey! What the hell was that for?" pausing he turned to Lucy. "Lucy is that true? I thought you were weak now."

Lucy stood with her hands crossed over her chest, "Well, to be honest I am not as powerless as before. But that isn't important now. Chelia, what is the meaning of this?"

"Oh nothing… I just wanted to see what the substitute Shinigami was all about. But right now he is useless as he is. He could fall at any moment too."

Ichigo looked at her seriously, "What do you mean? It's obvious I'm standing fine here."

Chelia laughed, "Do you seriously think it's all you? Don't be naïve. I'm using my control over the air to keep you up here. Watch."

With that she snapped her fingers, and Ichigo began to fall. His screaming voice that was fading away was all that could be heard, Lucy rushed towards him but found her path blocked by air.

Chelia made a tch tch sound as she waved her index finger back and fourth, "No no blondie. I won't have you interfering this time."

Lucy cursed, "Damn it! I knew we couldn't trust you!"

The pinkette giggled, but it sounded much more unfriendly now. "Sorry dear, now if you would excuse me I have to catch my front row seat for when carrot top there goes splat."

And with that she went down after the Shinigami.

#####

Ichigo had been falling for a short while, but he could already see the ground getting closer and closer.

'Come on Ichigo, don't panic. Gotta find a way to save myself. THINK DAMN IT!'

Wait that's it! ,He thought, if I can change to my Shinigami self then I can get out of this mess. But how? The only way I could have done it before was with Lucy's help. Well mostly her anyway but that's not the point.

As he continued falling Chelia caught up and remained quiet, 'Now let's see…'

Falling and falling and falling, the ground was getting closer and Ichigo still hadn't found a way out of this mess. He started to force his spirit energy out, tried to bring it out and manifest it…. But to no avail.

This was not looking good.

####

Up further in the sky Lucy stood still, focusing her spirit energy. Then she took her index and middle finger, coated in a thin layer of her Reiatsu, she drew it across and then down. Tearing through her wind prison. Shooting forward, or rather down, she headed towards where she sensed the other two in the air with her. But then a large gust of wind started pushing back at her and she couldn't even seem to get through.

Chelia looked up towards her, "Well someone is persistent" she muttered then turned towards Ichigo. "Hey! How you holding up!?"

Ichigo spun in place, "The hell! What kind of question is that!?"

"You could just answer me you know!"

"Shut up! And do something about this!"

Chelia laughed again, "Why should I!? I don't feel like it so see ya!"

Ichigo yelled at her, "What! Come on!"

She stopped herself midair and watched, Ichigo closed his eyes and awaited what was gonna happen, all the while still trying to do something…

The girl sighed, "Okay I guess I should stop now."

… then found that he had stopped falling.

Opening his eyes he looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like the girl changed her mind.

"Well that was fun." She laughed

"No it was not, and where is Lucy?" he demanded.

"Right here."

Chelia stood still, Lucy stood behind her with her hand on the girls back, right in the center. Just as Chelia stopped Ichigo from falling she stopped keeping Lucy away so the blond could catch up.

"Hey blondie. Took you long enough. Oh and don't bother trying that I could blast you away at any moment. I rule the skies after all, this is my territory your in."

Lucy frowned more, but reluctantly let the girl go and moved to Ichigo's side.

Chelia smiled, "Now then, do you understand Ichigo?"

"Understand what?"

She gave him a flat look, "Before you thought you were the one keeping yourself up here, so I had to show you." she turned to Lucy. "Go ahead. Do it. I know your just itching to release his Shinigami side so he can kick my ass. Go on, I want him to be in that state anyway."

Lucy frowned and pulled out her glove, "Fine, but don't regret giving us the chance."

Turning to Ichigo she shoved his head back, pulling out his Shinigami side and allowing his real body to slump forward. But it didn't fall, seems as though Chelia was still keeping it up even though her focus fell on the teen in front of her. Light blue energy surrounded him and Chelia could feel the intensity of his power.

"Now that's impressive-"

She was cut short by Ichigo pulling his sword and rushing her. Now he had his own control of his immediate space and could move around freely. Now it was even.

"Whoa there." Chelia said as she dodged him.

Backing away she took him in, he was quiet. He didn't say a word as he looked at her, his face deadly serious.

"Well, now this should be fun."

Ichigo rushed forward again, taking a swing at her, the girl ducked and swiped her foot trying to trip him. Ichigo jumped up and went for a down slash but found the girl gone. A wave of air hit him from behind, he fell again but this time caught his balanced and kept himself up.

Seeing how he has his own will of movement here, a smirk came to his lips.

Chelia noticed this, "Oh? Getting a little cocky are we?"

Putting her arms out to her sides, her palms open. Wind started to pick up all around them, "Let's see if I can do something about that." She muttered darkly.

Ichigo now found his movement restricted completely, and so did Lucy.

Holding her hair down and hanging on to Ichigo's real body just in case, a slightly shocked look came to her face. "Such power… her Reiatsu is so intense. Looks like she lives up to her title. The Sky God Slayer, she has complete control of this space. I have no choice, if it comes to that then I'll have to use it…"

#####

On the ground, a young man with black hair and glasses with rectangular shaped lens stopped walking and looked up. The sky was getting dark and even though there was cloud cover he could tell exactly where the forces he was sensing stood.

"Kurosaki? And that blond Shinigami as well… and one other… the girl that transferred to our school." Pausing he let his senses reach out, he felt out to get a better read on the feeling he got from it. Then it hit him and he know knew why it felt so familiar.

"That girl…. But it couldn't be…."

#####

"Well this is a problem." Ichigo muttered as he looked at the girl ahead of him. She dropped her usual cheery attitude and now looked more like a real enemy than an innocent girl. Looking closer he noticed some differences, her hair looked more wild, and was slightly lighter in it's shade of pink. He also noticed some markings on her upper arms, they were faint but were there.

'What are you waiting for….'

Ichigo froze.

'Go on. Pull out more…'

There it is again, the voice he had been hearing in his head.

'Pull out more of our Reiatsu…'

It echoed once more, but instead of ignoring it Ichigo did what the voice said. Pulling on his Reiatsu he found he felt stronger, a sensation overcame him and he could feel his blade vibrating slightly. He could also move again.

'That's it… keep going…'

He nodded to the voice.

Over where she stood, Chelia tilted her head to the side. Then smiled, 'It's working'.

"But I still need to push him more…"

That said she rushed forward, far faster this time around. Ichigo had no time to react as Chelia sent him flying with a punch. As he tried to stop himself she appeared behind him, and sent him flying once more with a kick.

"Damn I lost focus." Ichigo muttered.

He then blocked with his blade as a wave of wind as sharp as his blade itself brushed against it pushing him back slightly.

"Come on! Try harder!" Chelia exclaimed as she sent more wind his way.

And as much as he tried he was sent flying again. As he stopped he froze as she appeared right in front of him, her palm pressed against his chest.

"Sky God's Pulsation." Was all she said.

Then all he felt was pain, closing his eyes a slight scream left his mouth. He flew down towards the ground again. Before he fell further, he felt arms around him. Opening his eyes he looked back to see Lucy had caught him. His body lay up further, still being kept up by Chelia.

"You okay?" Lucy asked.

He grunted, "Fine. But whatever she did hurt like hell."

The blond sighed, "As much as I hate to say this, we have to pull out of this fight. We are in her territory now and no matter how much power you can muster up she still has the advan-"

Lucy was slapped away from Ichigo's side like a rag doll by a gust of wind.

"LUCY!" Ichigo yelled.

"Enough chatter. Get ready carrot top, I intend to test my power to its extent."

Ichigo looked furious. "What!? So that's why you've put us through this!? To test your powers!?"

She didn't answer, pushing her hands outwards at her sides, black air started gathering around her. Then she rushed forward, a trial of the air behind. Ichigo prepared for her but as Chelia got close to him, she twisted her torso as she extended her arms outwards.

"Sky God's Dance!"

With the rotation she got by twisting herself more she spun herself once, this generated a massive torrent of black sparkling wind, Ichigo tried to block it but it picked him up as it reached him and twisted him around as it went up. He felt like a thousand hands were hitting him at once, in that torrent of wind he was barraged nonstop. Finally it let up and he started falling.

Before he could even get a slight reprieve, Chelia appeared above him, black sparkling air gathering around her right leg. This soon turned into a small tornado of it.

"Second Sky Arrow!" she exclaimed as she thrusted her leg towards him.

Ichigo blocked with his blade but was utterly shocked when he heard a slight cracking sound. Then he was sent flying back again. Coming to a stop he looked to see that a crack had indeed appeared on his blade.

Landing in the air in front of him Chelia smirked, "That should do it." She muttered

Ichigo had had enough, he looked at her in fury, now he was pissed. He had been started to feel a bond with this sword of his for some reason, and now this girl damaged it….

That was it….

Massive amounts of Reiatsu filled the air, all surrounding the substitute Shinigami. Chelia could feel it, the vast amount of power she was told about. Now she had finally done it. She smiled widely. And held her hands out with her fists clenched.

Ichigo focused his energy, all the while being guided by the voice in his head. He let it flow through him and engulf his blade. Seeing this Chelia threw her head back and began do draw in air. As he felt he had purred enough, he drew back and let it lose.

With a war cry he swung his blade and a huge crescent shaped wave of Reiatsu was sent at her, then she let lose her own attack.

"SKY GOD'S BELLOW!"

A massive current of that black sparkling air shot forward from her mouth, impacting against Ichigo's own attack, the two forces fought for dominance, then exploded in a bright flash. The people on the ground looked up at seeing this but since the sky was filled with dark clouds looking ready to burst with rain they passed it off as a bolt of lightning above the clouds.

Back in the air Chelia stood and held her hands in front of her face, while Ichigo lay on his back a few feet away, blown away by the force of the explosion.

Opening his eyes, he looked around wondering if he got her with that. He gripped his sword's hilt tightly as the person in question stood above him looking down at him, he noticed the marks he saw earlier on her arms had vanished and her hair went back to its normal look and shade.

Before he could do or say anything, she held her hand out to him. "Nice fight. Ichigo-kun!"

Ichigo was speechless, staring open mouthed at the beaming girl above him.

"Hold on a second. Don't tell me that you weren't intending to really hurt me, but you were just fighting me for fun?"

"Yep!" she nodded.

.

.

.

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

Chelia toppled over, laughing uncontrollably at the teens face.

Ichigo sat up and turned away from her with a grunt.

"Hey come on don't tell me you had fun." She mused

He smacked her on the head, "Of course I didn't! I mean look at me!"

He held up his hands and gestured at his apparel. His clothes were ripped in several places, basically all over. And his skin had scratches everywhere, also had some deep cuts that were bleeding slightly.

The pinkette took a good look at him, "Oooh. Yeah you're right. I guess I went a little overboard."

"Don't talk as if you didn't know I'd look like this when you got done with me."

"Ichigo!"

They turned to see Lucy rushing towards them, Ichigo held out his hands for her to stop.

"Relax. Don't bother attacking or anything-"

She rushed past him and took a swing at Chelia.

"Whoa. Hey! Chill out Lucy."

The blond didn't listen, instead swinging and kicking after the girl. As Chelia watched the girl closely to avoid being hit, her keen eyes caught sight of something coming from the blonds movements. Looking closer she could see what looked like golden spics of light coming off of Lucy's hand and feet in faint trials as she swung them at her.

"What's that…" she trialed and in that instance, Lucy's right leg connected with the side of her head.

Pulling back from the pain it caused Chelia's attitude changed again and she took on a dangerous look on her face. She wanted to fight the blond back and show her who she's messing with but she held herself back. Instead she held out her hand and Lucy froze in place.

"I said chill out." She said calmly. Closed her eyes and inhaled, then let it go.

"Release me!" Lucy demanded.

"Do you promise not to try and knock my block off again?"

Lucy growled at her but took a calming breath and reluctantly nodded, "Fine. I'll yield."

Chelia nodded in approval of the girl's control of her emotions and how she could easily calm herself down. Putting her hand down Lucy dropped slightly as she could move again.

Chelia walked over to Ichigo and kneeled down in front of him. She held out her hand and Ichigo felt the cuts all over his skin beginning to heal. It was a weird feeling to be honest but felt good at the same time.

Lucy looked closely at the scene, puzzled. 'She's healing him, but why?'

After a minute he was completely healed. Chelia got up and walked over to Lucy, taking her arm in hers, she let her other hand hover over the cut Lucy had on her upper arm, a result of when she slapped her away earlier. The cut healed in a moment Chelia healed the other couple of scratches Lucy had.

She stepped back and gave Lucy a soft smile, "Feel better?"

Lucy didn't answer, instead asking something instead. "Why?"

Chelia sighed, "I can't give you the specifics yet but… for now let's just think of this as me simply having fun with you two. Now I'll take us down."

They slowly started to descend to the ground, Ichigo's body drifted towards them from where it was left. Lucy looked surprised at this.

'Wow. She has a lot of focus, right throughout the fight she kept his body up in the air.'

They landed in the park nearby after a few moments, due to the dark clouds promising rain any moment, no one was present.

As soon as Lucy's feet touched ground she fell to her knees.

"Lucy!"

Ichigo rushed to her side and held her in his arms. She gave a slight smile.

"I'm fine Ichigo. I'm just…." Was all she got out before she fell unconscious.

Chelia touched his shoulder, "It's okay. She's just spent from using up her Reiatsu to keep herself up the whole time and moving around in the air. She was already very low on Reiatsu to begin with."

'I suspect this is also due to those golden specs I saw coming off of her hands and legs whatever that was….'

"I see. How do you know this anyway? You mentioned it earlier when you brought us up there. How do you know that Lucy is low on Reiatsu now?"

Chelia looked to the side, "Well, let's just say I've been informed about a few things from a certain person. He's a very smart guy, like a scientist I guess. But he's also a bit of a moron…"

"Who is it exactly?"

The pinkette wasn't going to let anything go, not today. "That's not important now. What is important is getting Lucy home, if you ask me she looks a little more exhausted than she should, she's even sweating."

True to her words, Lucy was sweating at her forehead slightly and her face looked restless.

"You should get back in your body as well." She said as she carried it over with her air control. "And here."

She placed their bags beside them and slung hers over her shoulder, just as she took them up in the sky she used her air control to take them over to the park. As she had predicted they would be over it by the time she was done having her fun.

Ichigo set Lucy down on the ground and went to his body, phasing into it like Lucy showed him, he was back in. opening his eyes he rubbed his head. "Ah. I have a headache."

"That should wear off soon enough." The pinkette said quietly.

Ichigo looked at her, "Chelia… I want answers. I want to know what this was all about."

The girl sighed and hung her head slightly, looking back up she just shook her head. "Sorry Ichigo but I can't. Not yet at least."

The boy sighed heavily.

"Later. Hurry and get Lucy home, I'll see you at school tomorrow."

And with that she left. Ichigo got up and wondered how this would work, he had to get Lucy home but he had no idea where that was. He hadn't asked before. He sighed heavily again as the only option left came to him.

Mind made up he grabbed the bags, put them on his shoulder and then lugged Lucy up and put her on his back. Fortunately she grips when she's sleeping cause she took hold of her other arm when he brought her arms over, wrapping and pulling herself closer to his back. Gripping under her thighs gently he stood up and began heading home.

During the walk Lucy muttered several times sleepily, Ichigo ignored it though as he thought about what just happened. He was also dreading what was going to happen when he got home. God knows how his father is going to react when he saw his son walking through the door with a pretty girl on his back.

#####

Close by Uryū Ishida watched as Ichigo walked home with a sleeping Lucy on his back. He remained silent as he sneered at the boy. Then turned with a grunt and headed home.

#####

Closing the small gate behind him, Ichigo walked up to his door and opened it. Walking in he stayed silent. Maybe he could sneak Lucy up to his room and avoid the madness his father would bring.

Sneaking towards the stairs he froze as someone cleared their throat behind him. Isshin wasn't smiling or had a shocked look when Ichigo turned to face him.

"Can I have an explanation as to why my son just walked in the house, late, with an unconscious girl on his back?"

Ichigo searched for an answer, on his way he was expecting a loud shocked Isshin but he didn't expect this. His father seemed more serious than he has been in a while.

"Well?"

Ichigo shook his head to regain his bearings, "Ano… I can explain dad."

"Is she injured? Will I need to take a look at her?"

"No."

Isshin nodded to the staircase, "Then get her upstairs if you must and then come back down here right away. You can give me your explanation. In detail."

With that he turned and went back to the living room. Ichigo turned and went upstairs to his room, walking he closed his door and set down the bags before gently laying Lucy down on his bed. He covered her with his comforter and then went back down stairs.

As he walked past the kitchen Karin and Yuzu looked at each other with puzzled looks on their faces.

"I wonder why Ichigo brought a girl home, an unconscious one at that." Yuzu asked aloud.

Karin shook her head, "Leave it alone for now, I wanna know too so we'll ask later."

Sitting in the other chair across from Isshin in the living room, Isshin cocked an eyebrow, waiting on the teen to start.

"It's nothing really. We were both walking home and she was saying she hadn't had anything to eat today. Right after she fainted and I caught her. I don't know where she lives and I couldn't get her to come to so I decided to bring her here."

Isshin looked skeptical, "And that's all? Why didn't you use her phone right then and give her parents a call?"

"It was dead at the time, and I don't have the numbers of her parents." He lied.

His father sighed, "Alright fine. But just make sure to get her something to eat and also make sure she gives her parents a call. I'm sure their worried."

Ichigo nodded and stood up, "I was already planning to, I'll do it when I go up."

Isshin watched as he left the room and shook his head. 'It's happened so soon? I always knew it was a matter of time but I didn't anticipate it happening so early….'

#####

Lucy opened her eyes and looked around she was in a room she didn't recognize. "Where am I?" Looking to her right she starred out the window next to the bed she was in.

"Night time." She muttered

"So you're up."

Looking left she saw Ichigo sitting in the chair at a desk next to the bed, "How're you feeling?"

She sat up and winced, reached up to hold the side of her head, "My head's killing me. What happened?"

"You fell to your knees after we landed on the ground. And fell unconscious not long after that, Chelia said you were just exhausted from using up your Reiatsu."

Lucy nodded, "I remember now. About me fainting well, I used up a lot of Reiatsu while up there. Reiatsu I don't have much of to begin with. I'll be fine once I rest up."

She looking around the room some more, "So this is your room?"

Ichigo nodded, "Told my dad you just fainted."

"Sorry to cause you trouble…" she began.

Ichigo waved her off, "Don't worry about it, you've helped me before after all. Anyway what are you gonna do?"

"I think I should head home cause I don't wanna impose, but I don't think I'll get there by myself. I'm still spent from earlier, if I push it I might faint again."

Ichigo thought for a moment before nodding to himself, "I'll take you there then."

Getting up he turned his back towards her and stooped a bit, "Climb on."

She nodded and climbed on his back and held on to him tightly. He walked over and grabbed her bag before opening his window and leaping out.

"Whoa. Since when could you jump like that in your human body?"

Ichigo smirked, "I've been practicing a bit, working out a little too."

"Oooh. it feels nice here." She smirked seductively as she felt up his chest.

"Hey! Cut it out!"

She laughed as they went on towards her place.

#####

"And here we are."

Ichigo opened the door of her apartment flat and walked in. setting Lucy down she stretched slightly and sighed.

"You gonna be okay here alone?" he asked as he set her bag down.

"Yeah I'll be fine. I'll get some sleep and then I should feel fine by tomorrow."

He turned and headed out, "Alright, see you."

As the door closed, Lucy sighed again, how long will it be before he started changing? She wondered. Because of her he keeps getting in dangerous situations and it will only get worse along the way. She felt it will only be a matter of time before he started hating her for it.

"I just hope they can look the other way. What I did was a clear violation of that very law. I'll have to figure something out… but for now, time for a shower."

#####

Closing his door behind him as he walked in, he sat in his chair and thought about today's events.

A new transfer student, which was later found out to be a God Slayer. A dangerous fight in the sky against said Slayer. He was also worried about his sword, he took a look at it before sheathing it and the crack was still there. He didn't want to say anything to Lucy, so he just sheathed it and went in his body.

His mind went back to the girl, Chelia. He was worried about her version of having fun with them. He was practically hopeless there, she's strong. Very strong. She might be a real problem even though she didn't seem to want to kill them or anything, she healed them afterwards too. But still…

'Well, let's just say I've been informed about a few things.'

Then there was that, could she be working for someone? Did someone hire her to kill them?

But if that were the case why didn't she? She had the chance when she brought them up in the sky. Change of heart maybe?

Regardless of all that, he wanted answers.

"Chelia Blendy… just who the hell are you…?"

TO BE CONTINUED…..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BLEACH RELOADED~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys, yeah I know it's been a long while. But when you have exams to study for and some other issues, you'll find yourself with the one thing all writers face at times. Writers block.

Oh how I loathe it. Well anyway, I just got a burst of inspiration not too long ago and started hammering at this one. So how'd you all like it? I liked doing that fight scene there, could have been better but decided to make it a minor fight. And also we can all see that Ichigo got his ass kicked here, but that is because he just started out so he's inexperienced and all. And who's to say Chelia hasn't fought someone as strong as he is before. Chelia is an interesting person though, not just power wise but overall. I also really like her because of her abilities etc.

I also changed Isshin's personality slightly to fit my liking, not saying I don't like his canon self but I want it different. I bet most of you were expecting his madness. And another thing, can you guess who Chelia's informant is? I threw in a couple of hints there so it shouldn't be hard.

Well thanks for readin' this, I really appreciate you guys. Review, favorite. You know what to do, I'll see you guys in a month or so. Depending on when I get going at it again.

Later..

This is Leon signing off.

'


	4. The Plan

Previously on BLEACH RELOADED…

"My name's Chelia Blendy, I'm glad to be here and hope we can all get along."

"So you felt it to huh?"

Ichigo gave a grunt, "Yeah. She's definitely no normal girl."

"God Slayer? The hell is that?"

"People that were taught the arts of the God Slayer Akū."

"Chelia, what the hell is this?!"

Lucy cursed, "Damn it! I knew we couldn't trust you!"

"So you're informed huh? By whom exactly?"

"That's not important now, you should get Lucy home."

Their fight in the air ended with no harm done to each sides, however Lucy was more exhausted than she should have been. As they went towards his home, Chelia turned up to report to her 'informant'.

* * *

 **The Plan**

* * *

Somewhere in Karakura….

Chelia walked up to the supply shop she became familiar with since she got here. Inside, it's occupants were people that were over the 'ordinary' of what most are. Opening the slide door and shutting it she was greeted by a tall dark skinned man wearing casuals and an apron.

"Oh Miss. Chelia, Welcome back."

The girl smiled, "Hey Tessai. Is he in?"

Tessai nodded, "Yes he should be in the living room."

Saying her thanks she set her bag aside and went in. seated to one side of a round table in the center of the room was a man wearing a men's grey kimono and a dark green jacket with diamond patterns at the bottom, a pair of clogs on his feet and a green and white bucket hat completed his attire.

"What's up clogs?" Chelia greeted.

"Ah, your back. I trust it went well?"

She nodded in agreement and the man smiled.

"Yep! It was pretty fun too, but I think if I went all out it would be much better."

He chuckled at her enthusiasm, "That, my dear Chelia would not be wise. If you went all out young Ichigo would have been killed and the damage done to the area would be astronomical."

She sighed but didn't protest, she had learned that this man was as smart as they came, and even more so. Put simply the man was brilliant, if there were a way to describe it at a higher caliber she would. A scientist that designed many things, the gigantic training field below the shop could attest to this.

Yes, this man is Kisuke Urahara. Ex Gotei thirteen captain, unrivaled intelligence of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, S.R.D.I for short.

"Yeah I know. Anyway I think what you wanted has happened, during our little fight a felt his Reiatsu skyrocket near the end. And I also felt the presence of something awakening inside him."

Kisuke took out his fan and felt it near his face, "I knew it would, that's why I sent you. I knew fighting someone as strong as you would force it to awaken and force Ichigo to draw on it."

"Yeah but I barely did anything. I didn't really lay into him you know?"

"That wasn't necessary, what has awakened inside of him only did so so easily because it responded to a powerful presence. In short it felt challenged by your presence and force of you power. You are strong Chelia, very much so. I could tell you were holding back a lot but I could still feel it."

The pinkette blushed a bit at being praised, "Ah thanks."

Kisuke got a smirk on his face, "Now then, come. Embrace me Chelia my darling, I've missed you so~"

Kisuke cooed and Chelia sweat dropped. "I think I'll pass."

He gained an overly dramatic devastated look on his face, "Oh how it hurts! My darling Chelia has forsaken me!"

He sprang up and ran to Tessai who had just walked in, Kisuke grabbed on to the front of his shirt and looked up at him with long streams of white tears.

"Tessai! Why has Chelia forsaken me? Is it because I'm ugly?"

Chelia doubled over in laughter at Kisuke's ways and Tessai's annoyed expression. This is what made her so fond of the man, Kisuke always knew how to make her laugh and lighten up the mood. Letting go of Tessai Kisuke regained his more serious front.

"Alright then, Chelia come with me for a bit."

Getting up and following Kisuke to a door that was around the back of the shack they stopped at a wall. Kisuke stood still in front of a wall for a moment, Chelia felt as he started releasing some of his Reiatsu before he placed the bottom end of his cane against the wall where after removing it a small skull with blue flames surrounding it appeared. Then the wall opened up and both parts slid to the side revealing a lab filled with all sorts of screens and other thing.

The walls closed as they walked in and Chelia released a low whistle as she looked around.

"Wow. I never knew you had a lab here Kisuke."

The man grunted as he fiddled around with a keyboard below a screen, "Well not everyone is allowed here. Out of Tessai, Ururu and Jinta, only Tessai is allowed. And Yoruichi as well."

"What about the two kids? Don't you trust them?"

Kisuke nodded, "Of course I trust them. it's just that they tend to get too curious and will want to touch things. Especially Jinta."

"But I'm just a teen." She folded her arms over her chest, "So why am I an exception? And who's Yoruichi? I don't believe you mentioned her before."

"Ah." He turned to another table to place a device on it, "You're an exception because unlike those two, you are more mature and I feel you can handle yourself here without messing around. And Yoruichi and an old friend of mine. She and I go way back…"

Kisuke trailed as he got a dreamy look in his eye and started drooling a bit at the memory of his much loved friend. Chelia sweat dropped and turned to look at some of the things on the many tables in the room.

"I don't know about that Kisuke. I'm starting to get pretty curious about some of this stuff… I might even touch one…"

She froze as an evil aura came over her, spinning around Kisuke had a mock scary look on his face as he held his cane at the ready, "Oh? Is that so? If you touch anything you might just lose a hand."

With a ghostly sound to his voice Chelia could tell he was playing but was also serious, "Kidding! Only kidding!"

Placing his cane down he dropped all humor from his voice, "Okay Chelia. You know why I had you engage Ichigo like that right?"

She nodded, "Cause' you wanted me to awaken his inner power."

"Yes but that is not the only thing, awakening it was just the first stage of this plan of mine. The boy has gotten himself into some deep shit, while this may make way to a more interesting life, it is also incredibly dangerous. He has something special about him, and I have yet to fully figure it out. And also he needs to be prepared for what's to come. There isn't much time left."

Chelia looked a bit puzzled, "What's to come? I know about the impending dangers but you say there isn't much time left which means troubles is already on the horizon and approaching fast."

"Yes," Kisuke turned and touched a key on the board. Some smaller screens minimized as a picture of Lucy came up to full size, "And it involves what Lucy Heartfilia did a few nights ago."

The pinkette nodded in agreement, "You mean making Ichigo-kun a substitute right? But what's the harm in that? I think it's a good thing."

Kisuke cocked his head to the side, "Aren't you missing the big picture?"

Chelia looked at him confused. But then gained face of realization as her mouth opened in a silent 'O'. "Yeah now I remember. Doing what she did without permission from their Head Captain is violation against the law put in place for that matter."

"Right," hitting another key an image of Ichigo came up. "Now that the deed is done, Seireitei won't ignore this. They take it very seriously and we can expect some visitors very soon. If I'm correct and if they take into consideration who their dealing with, they'll most likely send a captain and his or her Lieutenant to apprehend Lucy if not both of them. Depending on who they send, the two might just take Lucy and eliminate Ichigo."

Chelia lightly slammed her fist into her palm, "And that's why you want Ichigo-kun to be prepared."

"Correct. And by the way why do you address him like that? With the honorific?"

"Huh?" Chelia started to blush, "Oh no reason. No reason at all…"

Kisuke merely chuckled, "Oh well. Anyway I can't waste any time. I have to get started right away."

He minimized the images and turned to his cane, picking it up he smiled at it fondly. "Chelia, I want you to bring Ichigo here tomorrow when school ends for the day. It's about time I have a little chat with him." He spoke without turning to face her.

Chelia folded her arms again. "You know he might not wanna come right? Especially after I made it seem like I was going to let him die by letting him fall out of the air. I know he is cautious of me, he doesn't trust me. And what about Lucy, what should I do about her?"

"….Do what you must with him, if you have to drag him here kicking and screaming. Do it. As for Lucy, it's alright if she comes along as well."

She sighed, "Alright. Now I think I'll have a much needed warm bath. Later."

"Okay. By the way, are you cooking dinner today Chelia my dear?" he jokingly inquired as he snapped his fingers making the walls open to let her leave.

She waved him off, "Just let Tessai do it as usual. You know I can't cook all too well,"

"Oh you'll get better at it don't worry about it. I'll have Yoruichi teach you."

"Urusai!" she yelled as she left, the walls closing up behind her.

Kisuke chucked fondly, Chelia was so cute when he got her irritated. Turning back to his cane he pulled on the handle and drew it forward revealing a slim blade. He ran a finger along the edge of it gently.

"You're as restless as always. But don't worry. Soon you'll get to feel that sensation again, my lovely Benihime."

Seireitei – Gotei thirteen district.

Squad two barracks.

The captain of squad two, Soifon placed a small stack of papers to one side of her desk as she finished looking over them and speaking to her Lieutenant.

"Well that be all captain?"

Soifon looked at her and smirked, "What do you have a date? You seem anxious to leave."

The girl blushed a bit but kept up her stern front, "Not at all captain. I just want to go and get something to eat is all."

"Ah. Well I think it's all done for today so your excused Erza." She granted her Lieutenant permission to go, as she remembered that she had quite the sweet tooth.

Erza Scarlet. Lieutenant of squad two, one of the strongest Lieutenants of the Gotei thirteen and close friend to her captain. She may be very stern and serious but like all women she has a good connection to her feminine side which will emerge at times. A weakness for sweets and can also be a bit too serious.

"Thank you captain," she gave a bow and left.

Leaving the barracks and turning right she headed straight for one of the sweets shops that were around the main area of the Seireitei. She slowly licked her lips as she pictured what she was going to order, yep. She loved her sweets. Walking past squad one she had to jump out of the way as a member flew out the front door.

Erza shook her head at their constant rowdiness as the captain of said squad walked out laughing like a loon with his sword on his shoulder.

"Come on Gajeel! I thought you were a badass, guess I was wrong!"

Kenpachi Zaraki. Squad eleven captain and a man of few words… really he's just a man with an extreme love of fighting. Considered to be a monster of the Gotei thirteen with his immeasurable strength. And a complete nut job.

"Shut up ya' big jackass! You just caught me off guard."

Gajeel Redfox, Kenpachi's Lieutenant and a war monger like his captain. His many piercings is thought to be jewelry but their more than that. He brushed back his main of jet black hair as he pointed his sword at his captain.

"Now me and Metalicana here are gonna kick your ass!"

Kenpachi smirked, "Well bring it on then!"

Just before they charged their senses suddenly screamed at them in warning and the two had to leap to the sky as a torrent of flames shot out from the barracks. Erza herself had to move back a bit to get away from the heat.

"Oh great. So he's here fighting with them too…" she muttered, knowing exactly who just tried to roast the two barbarians to a crisp.

Laughing like a mad man and stepping out of the new hole that was left of the front entrance of the barracks, he rested his sword on his shoulder and looked up.

"Oh so you got away? Thought I got ya'."

Natsu Dragneel, Lieutenant of squad three and another fight loving handful.

Kenpachi gave a blank look, "If you thought you could get me with a puny lizard's spit of fire like that your more of an idiot than I thought. And I thought I knocked you out cold."

Natsu grinned, "Lizard's spit of fire huh? I'll show you."

He leaped to the sky and the three started fighting it out in a flurry of blurry moves and a wave or torrent of fire every so often.

Erza sweat dropped. She had been standing there the whole time and none of them even noticed, "Good grief. Those three animals should be put in cages."

She decided not to interrupt their fun time and continued her walk to her destination. Up in the air the three continued going at it.

Natsu pointed the tip of his blade and a ball of fire formed before firing off like being shot from a cannon.

The ball of flames shot downward at Gajeel but the man dodged it and moved to the right to avoid a swing from Kenpachi. Natsu would have ignored it until he saw who it was heading for. Erza.

"Oh shit ERZA!"

From his point of view she looked completely oblivious to the attack coming right at her. Erza's hand flew to her swords hilt, in one swift motion she drew it and twirled slightly as she swung her blade and sent off a wave of scarlet red energy towards the fire, as the two connected they exploded leaving a ball of smoke behind.

Natsu landed on the ground and jogged to her, "Sorry Erza I didn't see you there…"

The girl turned to him and sighed. "It's fine." Sheathing her sword she turned to leave but not before kicking him in the gut sending him flying away like a rag doll. "That's for almost burning me alive. Baka."

"Ah come on! But you had it covered!"

"Don't care."

As she went Gajeel and Kenpachi landed next to him, both snickering.

"Get your ass kicked by a woman Natsu?" Kenpachi joked.

"URUSAI!"

####

"Hey Erza!"

The red head turned to see one of her closest friends run up to her, "Oh Mira. What's up?"

Mirajane Strauss, squad eight Lieutenant.

"Nothing much. What are you up to?"

"Just going to get something at the sweets store, want to join me?"

Mira nodded and the two continued, "That sounds good, captain Sui-Chan finally gave me a break. He's been working me all morning dropping paper work after paper work on me."

Erza chuckled at Mira's way of calling her captain, "That's how it is Mira. It's a part of the job."

Walking in the shop they both got what they wanted and sat down to enjoy.

"So how do you think Lucy is doing?"

Erza hummed, "Well her task isn't very difficult, the Hollows aren't that powerful. Are you worried?"

Mira nodded, "A little bit yeah. I know they aren't very powerful but still…"

"Its okay. Lucy can handle herself, you know that."

Mira smiled, "Yeah your right."

"Erza, Mira."

The two looked up as a familiar voice called.

"Hey Gray. How've you been?"

He shrugged, "All good."

Gray Fullbuster, squad nine Lieutenant.

"How was your mission Gray?" Erza asked between mouthfuls.

"Not as good as I'd liked. We had a few problems with several hollows. Something was different about them, they were much stronger than any I've faced before." His expression changed to a look of concern, "Then there was my captain's behavior. At certain points he started acting a little strange."

"Is there something wrong with captain Fernandes?" Mira asked.

Gray shook his head, "I don't know. Well it won't do me any good to worry so much. Later you two."

As he left Erza sighed heavily, Mira picket up on this and turned to her friend.

"Something wrong?"

"It's what Gray said about his captain. The other night I was running an errand for my captain and I saw him and captain Sosuke having a conversation. But what caught my attention is how suspicious the two were moving."

Mira asked in a hushed tone, "Did you investigate?"

"No. I don't like making my captain wait so I just ignored them and went my way."

"I see." said Mira as she looked at the table in thought.

Erza perked up, "Well there's no use in mopping around like this. Waiter! Another serving for me and my friend please!"

Mira giggled just like that her mind was at ease a bit. She could always count on her friends to lighten thing up.

####

The captain of squad five, Sosuke Aizen sat in his chair overlooking a few details on a notepad. His little plan had been going on for a while now and there were no problems or interferences. Well except for what happened with Isshin and that woman Masaki that is.

"That was good however. My creation got to test it's strength."

The man chuckled, he was brilliant. And this scheme of his will lead to what he desires greatly. He thought about what happened with Shinji and the others. It was unfortunate but such were experiments, sometimes they got ugly. In just a while longer he will fully set his plan into motion and let them all know what his game was. He could just see the results now.

His thoughts were interrupted as one of his colleagues arrived to their secret lab.

"Ah Jellal." Sosuke said as he turned to the man. "I was wondering what was taking you so long."

Jellal Fernandes, squad nine captain.

"I would have gotten here sooner," he sighed as he took a seat and rubbed his temples. "But the heat captain was getting curious about the details of my report."

Aizen nodded in understanding, "It's only natural. So how did it go?"

"Fairly well. But those hollows are a pain to deal with. Fighting them and holding back as much as I can so that I don't kill them before I get to observe their progress is a bit difficult, plus I can't just stand back and watch my squad members go at it while I watched. They would get curious."

"Indeed they would," Aizen handed the clip board to Jellal so he could see the details and results. "That's the results regarding our creation that Isshin encountered a few years back."

Jellal looked up at Aizen confused, "I've already seen this…"

"Look at it again, I went over the whole thing a few minutes ago and found some details I hadn't noticed before."

Looking over the notes Jellal's expression changed from curiosity to surprise and then to shock, "Are these correct? You're positive on all this?"

Aizen grunted in agreement, "Yes. That one was at the very pinnacle of what we have been working for. What we need to do is repeat those results Jellal, and we will have what we want."

"But to do that we will need-" he was cut off by Aizen.

"Yes I know. The Hogyoku… but don't worry my friend, soon that girl will return and I will take it when the time is right."

"You talk about her as if she isn't your LT." Jellal chuckled.

"I don't really care all that much," Aizen said nonchalantly. "She is but a mere LT. However she does have some perks, maybe I will recruit her… anyway what about your LT?"

"Gray?" he paused, "Well he still curious about my behavior as of late."

"Why do you let yourself be seen by him like that?" Aizen inquired.

Jellal gave another pause, "No reason. I just can't control myself sometimes. That voice still haunts my mind."

Sosuke chuckled, "I still can't believe you were capable of all that, it was perfect cruelty. And all for the purpose of resurrecting-"

"Enough," Jellal cut him off. "I was foolish back then, trying to resurrect a man that didn't even need resurrecting."

He got up and started to leave. But not before stopping to say something, "And Aizen, don't bring that up again."

Aizen remained unfazed as Jellal left. He chuckled slightly, the man was always touchy about the subject. As he thought about it he could see why Jellal got so deep into it. Bringing back a man such as that would be a great achievement. Zeref, known to be the wickedest man in history. Aizen wanted to meet the man himself, it would be interesting to ask about how things were back then.

Getting up he got back to working on this plans for the future, "Oh how fun this will be."

####

Squad one barracks.

Genryusai Yamamoto sat in his chair behind his desk looking over some documents, being the Head Captain his job was way more complicated but that's how it is. His LT stood to his right quietly.

Kagura Mikazuchi, a well-mannered young woman of great strength. Perhaps even of the level of a captain, but only Genryusai would know just how much.

Genryusai sighed as he leaned back in his seat, Kagura noticed something was bothering him and spoke up.

"Is there something wrong sir?"

Yamamoto hummed for a bit, "There is just something bothering me. I am not sure what but I feel uneasy." He stroked his beard trying to settle himself, "Something is on the horizon Kagura. Something unpleasant."

She could only nod in agreement, for a while now things have been way too calm and quiet for comfort. Nothing too unusual has happened in over a month leading her to think something might just hit them unexpectedly. She just hoped she could handle it and protect her captain.

* * *

The plan

* * *

The school day had ended normally and Ichigo was heading home with Lucy tagging along. In the morning Chelia showed up like nothing happened and behaved like she normally would. And now the two were wondering where she was as they thought she would be walking with them.

The girl in question's whereabouts were made known as they reached the front gate, Chelia was leaning against the wall looking like she was waiting on them. The girl had a stoic look on her face as they walked up.

Turning to Ichigo she addressed him first, "I need you to come with me Ichigo."

"Why?" he asked as he already began to get suspicious.

"Just come on. You'll find out when we get there. I need you to come along as well Lucy."

"Fine. I don't see why not," Lucy shrugged. "Come on Ichigo."

"Huh?" he asked looking at her strangely. "I thought you didn't trust her."

"I still kinda don't but I have an idea of why it is she wants us to go with her. It's alright, we can go."

"It involves the person who informed me about you." Chelia added.

Ichigo didn't like it but since Lucy seemed okay with it he guess he could go along. He trusted Lucy with his life after all.

"Fine."

With that said they followed Chelia to their destination, as they got closer Lucy was positive of who they were goning to meet.

'You better have a damn good reason for getting involved Kisuke.' She thought.

####

Arriving at Urahara Shop Lucy let out a heavy sigh, "I knew it. It just had to be him didn't it?"

Chelia giggled a bit, Kisuke had previously told her that Lucy wasn't ignorant to who he is.

Entering the shop Chelia called out an 'I'm back' as they took off their shoes. Turning the first corner they were greeted by Tessai.

"Welcome back." He greeted.

"That's Tessai," Chelia gestured to him and then to the other two kids. "Jinta and Ururu. Don't mind Jinta if he gets rude he's just a little stuck up bastard is all."

"UP YOURS PINKY!"

They all sweat dropped and Lucy laughed.

"See what I mean?"

The two gave a well-mannered greeting except for Jinta who was currently locked in a glare match with Chelia. Just then Kisuke made his presence known as he walked in and cleared his throat.

"Welcome to Urahara Shop!" he greeted enthusiastically while waving his hands out.

In an instant and before he could say anymore Lucy was an inch away from his face giving him a spine chilling glare while she grabbed the front of his clothes.

"Kisuke you bastard." she said in a jokingly evil tone as her eye twitched, "Didn't I tell you not to get involved?"

He held up his hands in surrender, "Ah Lucy. I trust you've been doing well?"

"Don't give me that," she let go of him and stepped back. "Kisuke I specifically asked you not to get involved and yet here you are. What do you want with me and Ichigo?"

Kisuke simply turned and gestured to the living room, "Come and sit. I'll explain everything."

Ichigo followed after Lucy to the living area as Chelia joined them with a satisfied smirk on her face. Behind her an unconscious Jinta could be seen lying face first on the ground with steam coming off his head. Sitting around the round table in the middle of the room Tessai offered tea to which they all agreed.

"Before I get into it," Kisuke began. "I'd like to say it is good to finally meet you, Ichigo."

"How do you know my name?"

Kisuke frowned, "I'll explain all that later on, so just listen for now okay?"

Glancing at Lucy she gave a nod and Ichigo consented.

"Fine."

"Alright then," he went again. "As you have been made aware by Lucy here you know that you are a substitute Shinigami correct?" Ichigo nodded.

"And I am sure you know about the threats that come with. You see Ichigo, what Lucy did has placed her in a tight situation. And now the Seireitei will be sending members after her. Two to be exact. And once they have her the will take her back to deal the fitting punishment."

"Why?" Ichigo asked, "Why is she being Punished for doing something like that? If you ask me there is no harm in it."

Kisuke sighed, "That may be true but the Seireitei has it's own way of doing things. And like any society laws and regulations have been put in place since the beginning. What Lucy did, making you a substitute Shinigami, goes against one of those laws. It is something the higher ups take very seriously."

Ichigo turned to Lucy and gave an incredulous look, "Why didn't you tell me? How could you just put yourself in danger like that?"

"I'm sorry," Lucy dawned a solemn expression. "I didn't know what else to do… I just couldn't let it all end like that. If I hadn't done anything I would have been killed and then you would've been killed right after. I wasn't going to let that happen."

"Anyway," Kisuke piped up. "We have a problem on our hands now. It won't be long until they take notice and take action. I have someone on the inside to inform me when they will be acting so we are in luck there. Lucy is basically out of commission for now but we have a few on hand, you Ichigo, will need to be prepared for when they come."

Ichigo seemed to understand what was going on and what needs to be done.

"So I have put together a training regimen to help you get stronger so you'll be able to face them. We start tomorrow seeing as it's Saturday."

Ichigo didn't say anything for a few moments weighing his decision. After a bit he gave a nod.

"Alright I agree to this."

"Wonderful!" Kisuke exclaimed. "Be here by the stroke of dawn alright? If your even a second too late I'll throw you in the pits of hell as punishment."

Finishing off Kisuke laughed like a mad man as lighting flashed behind him.

Ichigo leaned to Lucy, "Is he alright? Y'know mentally?"

"Who knows," Lucy supplied neutrally. "Sometimes I wonder about that guy."

Finish off their tea Lucy and Ichigo took their leave. They walked home in silence until Lucy spoke up.

"I'm coming to your house today Ichigo, there are a few things I need to tell you regarding Seireitei."

"That's alright," he grunted. "Just try not to set off my dad, he's kinda nuts too."

####

Arriving at the house they walked in the front door as Ichigo called out 'I'm home.'

"YOUR!"

Ichigo was greeted with a fist in his face dead on.

"LATE!"

Isshin yelled as Ichigo was sent tumbling towards the front door, "Ha! I got you good this time!"

Ichigo sprung up, "What the hell you moron?!"

All Lucy could do was giggle at their antics, bringing attention to herself.

"You're the girl Ichigo brought home with him yesterday." Isshin said.

"Ah yeah," she held out her hand. "Lucy Heartfilia."

Isshin took it an greeted back in kind, "Isshin Kurosaki. So your Ichigo's girlfriend?"

"No no." Lucy chuckled, "Not at all. Were just friends."

"Oh?"

Ichigo interrupted the too by steeping in between them, "Anyway we got some things to discuss relating to school. We'll be up in my room."

As they went up Isshin hummed in thought, he knew what was really going on with his son and that girl. But why so soon? Sooner or later he will have to act himself. For now he'll just watch from a far.

Closing the door behind him Ichigo hung his bag on the back of his chair and took a seat, Lucy placing hers on the ground and sitting on his bed.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "Awfully comfy aren't we?"

"Well I was laying in it yesterday," she giggled. "So I think this is fine."

Ichigo grunted and laid back in his chair, Lucy took a good look at him and sighed heavily. She was worried…

Constant danger and life threatening situations were the only things laying ahead of the path he has now chosen.

…badly worried.

Shaking her head she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, now was the time to let Ichigo know about the threats on the for front. Many threats lay ahead indeed. But those are further ahead, now is the time to focus on the immediate ones.

"I'll be blunt Ichigo… You're in over your head. The members of the Gotei thirteen are no joke, first off let me get to the captains of each squad. Each captain were chosen mainly for two things besides leadership; first is their incredible strength. The levels of power they each poses are worlds apart from ours, completely different leagues. Second, they were all able to achieve Bankai. I will explain what that is later on. This information just regards the captains of squads two to thirteen, but there is another who is superior to even them. The head captain Genryusai Yamamoto…. I can't even begin to describe his level of strength."

Ichigo sat quietly as he took in the information. Deciding to save all questions for after.

"Directly below the captains are Lieutenants. Then below the LTs you have seat officers, third seat, fourth seat, fifth seat and so on. Each squad may have a small army of men but they are just soldiers with their own levels of strength respectively. From fourth seat up to the LT are the stronger members of the squad. That brings me to the next thing, the captains may be problems but they are not the only ones, I will name out a few. You remember the other day when I mentioned my two old friends Natsu and Gray?"

Ichigo nodded in affirmation as he recalled Lucy comparing the two in question to Keigo and Mizuiro, Lucy went on.

"Natsu Dragneel, the LT of squad three, an extremely strong person and has a passion of fighting. He has an affinity to fire so that's one thing to worry about. I've felt the intensity of his flames and had to move away to avoid the heat, he can melt things just like that. And another thing… he's a dragon slayer."

Ichigo had a shocked look on his face, "Wait what? So is he the same as Chelia?"

"Not exactly, Chelia is a God Slayer. She has the power to slay gods. Natsu has the power to slay dragons."

Ichigo held up his hands to make her stop. Taking a deep breath he thought for a moment, then looked to her. "So let me get this straight. Dragons actually exist?"

"You know about them?" Lucy asked surprised.

"Yeah. I use to hear stories about them when I was a kid. But I thought they were just made up."

"Oh believe me Ichigo, they are very real. But fortunately a dragon hasn't been seen in years. They're most likely extinct. So they won't be things we have to worry about. Anyway back to the subject at hand. Next is Gray, Gray Fullbuster. LT of squad nine and one of the strongest LTs. He has an affinity to ice so that's another thing to be wary about. He can freeze almost anything by touch, very crafty and careful when he fights."

"Next we have Erza Scarlet. LT of squad two and quite possibly the strongest LT. A stern and serious woman, in battle her mind is a steel trap. She has several different fighting styles and apparel to go with them, I've never seen a Shinigami like her before. The thing that stands out about her most is her scarlet colored hair."

"I named out those three because they are the most dangerous ones. They along with the other LTs are the elite members of the Gotei thirteen under the captains and head captain."

Ichigo closed his eyes in thought as he imaged a table in his mind with the thirteen captains at the top as number ones and the LTs as number twos and then below them the others followed as threes and fours.

'So below each captain we got another strong ass guy or girl then some other semi strong guy or girl below the LTs. But the way Lucy talks makes it obvious that despite the third and fourth seats the LTs are bigger threats besides the captains. Easy to understand how they're set up.'

"The odds are stacked against us huh?" Ichigo added.

The blond nodded and laid back on his bed, starring at the ceiling.

"Lucy."

"Hmm?" she responded without moving.

Ichigo stayed quiet for a bit, all that info still fresh in his mind. Still he went on.

"Are you okay with this? I mean you're a Shinigami yourself and Seireitei is where you came from. I know that the ones you named out specifically are your friends, and a lot of others too. So are you really okay with me ending up fighting them soon enough?"

"I can't say that I am," she sighed. "As you said yes they are my friends; Natsu, Gray and Erza are the greatest friends I've ever had. The very best. But since the first time I came into contact with you a week and a half ago I've already started to care for you very much Ichigo."

"But even though I say they're my friends," she continued. "For a little while before I was tasked with watching over this town, everyone has been… changing a bit. We all stopped hanging out, we started talking to each other less and less." She sighed. "I don't know what's happening with them, maybe it was just a phase or something. Natsu tends to be kind of moody sometimes with that issue of his. And Gray… well sometimes he just seems like a different person."

Ichigo remained silent as she spoke, he didn't interrupt. Deciding to let her talk as much as she wants, as far as he can see it's helping her release some tension and stress of what's to come, despite her tone and mood she had a slight smile on her lips. Which started to change as he continued to watch her, as she started speaking again.

"We use to have so much fun. Natsu always kept me laughing, all of the, did. That's how it should always be, happy and nothing more, that's what I would want to return to."

Ichigo finally spoke up, "You sound home sick."

She laughed a bit, "I kind of am… but trust me I have enjoyed my time here with you. Being at Seireitei is great but being in the world of the living is an excuse to be away from my obnoxious father."

"I see." Ichigo said.

"He's not really a cruel asshole kind of father if you're thinking that. But his ways just pisses me off sometimes. He cares way too much for his company and wants nothing else than for me to inherit it all. But to be honest I couldn't give a damn about it, I just want to be left alone. I'm content with how things are now."

"Is he a Shinigami?"

"No," she answered. "He's just a human, though he has some remnants of Reiatsu within him which is good enough of a medium to allow him to enter Seireitei. My mother was the one, like me she was Shinigami but…. She went missing almost a year ago. I tried searching for her at places I knew she would go to if she ever decided to go off on her own without telling me but each place I checked there were no signs of her. I couldn't even trace her Reiatsu, I use to be able to feel her presence where ever she went as long as she was within my respective sense of tracking radius but to this day I still can't."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ichigo said quietly.

Never the less Lucy didn't let it keep her depressed, "It's okay. I've already come to grips with the possibility of her being dead."

At that last part Ichigo felt his heart ache as he remembered his mother, to this day he still mourned over her death.

"Well anyway. We can at least relax for now." Lucy said as stood up and stretched. "I think I'll get going and head home."

"I'll follow you to my front gate."

Nodding okay she picked up her bag and the two left out.

####

Uryū walked along the side walk heading home after his trip to the grocery store. He was thinking about the latest events, Chelia Blendy the new transfer student who was a lot more than those humans thought. Ichigo Kurosaki awakening as a soul reaper even though Uryū had an idea of what the boy really was. Resonance he could feel whenever her reached out with his Reiatsu and it made contact with Ichigo's was unmistakable.

'But even so. Why did he have to awaken as one of them?'

His thoughts were interrupted as someone made their presence known to him. The man stepped out from the shadows and greeted him.

"Good night to you young man. Enjoying your little stroll?"

Uryū didn't answer to that, recognizing who this man is by the description his father gave him. He also remembered his father saying the man liked to be humorous and pretends to be all carefree.

"Kisuke Urahara. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Kisuke chuckled at the boy's straight forwardness, "I'm not surprised you know me. I assume Ryūken told you?"

"And I assume you didn't approach me to have small talk."

"I'll get right to the point then," Kisuke went to his serious side as he began. "You are aware of what is going to happen to Ichigo and Lucy Heartfilia now right?"

"Of course."

"Good, I thought so. Well I plan on training Ichigo to get him ready for it by the very least. But I know even with that it won't be enough. We just don't have enough time so I already know we won't be able to stop them once they finally come. I've also predicted once they take her, given Ichigo is lucky enough not to be killed by whoever they send, he's going to demand I get him into Seireitei by any means necessary. Thus I have approached you to request your assistance in this endeavor."

Uryū remained quiet for a while as he thought it over. But no, his pride as a Quincy won't allow it.

"I think I'll pass. I have no intention of getting involved with Shinigami."

Kisuke sighed, he had a feeling this would have been the boy's reply.

"I know it is a lot to ask but given the fact that you and him were once childhood friends. Can't you overlook what he has become as of late? Don't do it for me. Do it for Ichigo."

Uryū couldn't argue with that fact, he and Ichigo were indeed childhood friends, and he didn't truly hate the boy. It's just the fact that he is now a Shinigami that makes Uryū dislike him to an extent. But deep down he knew this wouldn't end well and he is more than capable of giving a helping hand.

Kisuke watched as Uryū stood there and thought. He could tell that the boy was edging towards agreeing to help out but he wasn't going to press him on it. He'd give Uryū some time.

"Why don't you give it some thought? I won't rush you or anything, take your time. Once you've made your decision give me a call."

Kisuke handed Uryū a card with his number on it and walked off. Disappearing with a burst of shunpo. Uryū looked down at the card and sighed. He couldn't believe he was actually going to consider this.

"Damn it Ichigo. You just had to go and get yourself wrapped up in something like this didn't you?" he said as he continued his walk home.

####

The next morning had Ichigo sleeping away peacefully in his bed, noting but comfort of his cozy abode. However a feminine voice wafted in his ear awakening him from his slumber.

"Goooood Mooorning~" the voice coed, Ichigo opened his eyes and found himself staring into familiar eyes.

His face flushed instantly, "What… are you… doing?"

"Nothing." She replied playfully with a giggle. "Just came to wake you up."

Ichigo gave her a blank look, "By coming into my room and laying on me Chelia? How did you get in here anyway?"

"The window," she answered while straddling him more. "Kisuke knew you wouldn't be coming as early as he wants you to so he sent me."

"You do know it's a bad idea to come here like this right? I mean I have sisters and a father here. What if one of them came in and saw us like this?"

Chelia waved him off, "Don't worry. I checked when I came in, everyone's still fast asleep. When I popped my head in your sister's room I stood there staring for five minutes, that little orange haired one is so cute! And your father looks like a cool dude."

Ichigo didn't pay attention to that last comment as he looked down and flushed a bit more at their position.

"As much as I may be enjoying this closeness could you get off? I'll take a shower then get ready and we'll head out."

"Oh? Not gonna wait till they all wake up so you can let them know you're going out for a while?" she inquired as she got up and sat at the edge of his bed.

"It's fine. They won't worry if I'm gone first thing in the morning. And do you really want us to wait around here for that?"

She shook her head, "Nope. Kisuke can get pretty antsy if you keep him waiting too long."

####

About ten minutes later had Ichigo and Chelia heading to Urahara shop to begin the training regimen Kisuke set up for Ichigo. Arriving at the shop and going in they were greeted by Kisuke. An annoyed looking Kisuke at that.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to send someone to get you young man, why would u want to make me wait huh?"

He asked in a creepy voice while rubbing his knuckles on Ichigo's head.

"Hey! Damn it Kisuke cut it out!"

After messing around a little Kisuke led them to the back room where he then leaned down and opened a trap door.

"This way everyone, please watch your step and keep yourselves firmly placed on the ladder as you go down. I will not be held liable if you fall and break your neck."

"Well aren't you the caring tour guide." Ichigo commented sarcastically.

Putting his foot down after a long climb down, Ichigo stood in awe at the sight before him. He was now standing in what looked to be a vast plane filled with rocks, a few dying bushes and shrubs and, wait this shouldn't be possible they were supposed to be below the shop so how the hell. And wait, as he looked up where the ceiling _should_ be he found a clear blue sky instead. A freaking sky! How is there a sky under here!?

"Kisuke," he muttered. "What is all this? Where are we?"

"We are now directly below the shop actually." He answered simply

"Then what's all th-"

Kisuke cut him off as he held out his arms to gesture at the vast field, "This is one of my magnificent creations Ichigo. Though it may seem simply impossible I have created a vast training field under the shop. This is where I will put you through hell to make you strong so get ready for the worst!"

He began his maniacal laughter but Chelia clapped him upside the head, "Cut the madness will ya," she turned to Ichigo. "I can understand your shock Ichigo, I was just as shocked when he showed this to me. It's simply amazing isn't it?"

Ichigo only nodded his agreement, then the sounds of rocks being crushed and loud shouting caught his attention. Walking towards the source with Chelia following close behind, he came around a large boulder and saw Lucy running towards a rock. As she got near she drew her fist back.

"Regulus impact!"

She screamed and a blast of golden Reiatsu shot from her fist, on impact with the rock it shattered it leaving only pebbles behind. Lucy stood with her hands on her knees as she started to feeling winded.

"Hey!"

She looked up to see Ichigo and Chelia coming towards her and she gave a wave to them.

"Hey guys, finally got here. I was starting to wonder how long it was gonna take you to get him Chelia."

"So why didn't you come get me?" Ichigo asked.

"Well I did insist but this one jumped up and ran off saying she would get you so I just sat back." She said pointing to the pinkette in question. "When I got here a little while ago I though you would be here."

Ichigo took a look at the surrounding area, there were small craters and remains of huge rocks everywhere. "I see you've been busy, I don't get that though. I thought you were real low on Reiatsu now."

Lucy gave a nod, understanding his confusion. "Well I was but I've been here for a week and a have. My body has already started drawing in reishi particles in the air."

Kisuke came up then, clapping his hands. "Okay people no time to waste, let's begin our training for today. Lucy I wasn't planning on including you but since you asked and given the situation I think it is only fair, so as per your request your sparring partner will be Chelia. Go easy on her okay pinky." He said using the nickname Jinta gave her.

"Hai Taichou!" Chelia gave a mock salute before turning to Lucy and giving her a wicked grin. "You best get yer' self ready little missy, I'll be trainin' ya' hard till tha' cows come home!" Chelia said in a Texas drawl.

"Okay," Kisuke continued giving Ichigo his full attention. "Now then. First off let me get you into a state more suited for this."

Ichigo didn't answer, instead looking over and sweat dropping as he watched Chelia chase Lucy down while yelling 'Yeehaw! run faster blondie!'

His attention returned to Kisuke however as the man jabbed the bottom of his cane in Ichigo's forehead drawing out his Shinigami side, his body falling to the ground afterwards. Ichigo flexed his arms and twisted his neck a bit enjoying the popping sound that came. Kisuke snapped his finger and Ururu appeared seeming out of nowhere.

"Take Ichigo's body back up to the shop and lay it down on a futon for me will you? Thank you very much."

The girl slung the teens limp body over her shoulder with no effort at all and jogged off. Making Ichigo wonder is she was even normal at all.

"Alright, so how are we gonna get this ball rolling?

"First let me see your Zanpakutō. Draw it."

Complying Ichigo reached behind him and pulled the large blade out. Examining it from where he stood Kisuke admired how it looked. A unique looking broad sword, the middle being black and both top and bottom edges having silver running along them from base to tip. The hilt was black with a bit of silver in between X shape patterns, the guard was large and rectangular, silver in color with the same X pattern going out to all four edges from the hilt. But as he looked up at Ichigo he saw confusion on the boy's face.

"That's weird," Ichigo said as he examined it himself. "It didn't look like this before, it's totally different now."

They were interrupted as the wind in the area started to pick up and they could feel the familiar Reiatsu increasing slightly a good distance away from them in the training field.

"Well Chelia's having fun. Anyway," Kisuke nodded and walked over, "That is because the Zanpakutō may change or, evolve if certain requirements are met. It varies from person to person. I'm impressed though. I haven't seen a Zanpakutō looking like this in its sealed form."

Ichigo looked confused at this, "Sealed form? What do you mean?"

"What? You don't know?" Ichigo shook his head no and Kisuke sighed. "You've been a substitute for the last week and a half so I assumed Lucy told you about all this. Well before I get started explaining I'll show you. Watch closely."

Kisuke held up his cane and drew the top half up, revealing the thin blade within. Holding it close to his face he spoke quietly but loud enough for Ichigo to hear. "Awaken now, Beniheme."

As he said this the thin sword changed, the regular looking cane handle became a handle that looked much more like that of a sword, black in color with a bit of gold and a short, flat red ribbon at the bottom. Further up had another red ribbon tied between the black area and the upper area that was gold. The upper part extended up and split in two parts with a gap in the middle which held the blade itself. The blade wasn't too long or too short, just the perfect length with black on one side, silver on the other and the tip of the blade was flat.

"Whoa. That looks great, when I saw that tiny blade I thought what the hell that little thing was."

Kisuke smirked, "Oh I'll get you for that. Anyway this is my Zanpakutō's Shikai. And now that I have demonstrated this I will explain it all briefly."

"The Zanpakutō is more than just any sword," he began. "It is a part of a Shinigami's soul. In other words it is an extension of a Shinigami. Like a second persona, that kind of thing. Now, every Zanpakutō has two stages of release; the Shikai and the Bankai. The Shikai is the initial release stage, this is brought on by saying a certain release call, once this is done the Zanpakutō will change it's form and gain special abilities. The forms vary from Shinigami to Shinigami. And also it is imperative that the Shinigami learns the Zanpakutō's for this to be achieved. Without knowing the name, it cannot be released and the Zanpakutō is basically rendered a regular sword."

"The Bankai," he continued. "Is the final release. To achieve this the Shinigami must be able to materialize and subjugate their Zanpakutō spirit. Furthermore each Bankai has a name, which you must know."

Ichigo looked like he caught on well, "I get it, so to achieve Shikai I gotta know the name of my Zanpakutō. And for Bankai its materialization and all that."

"Now then. I assume you at least know the name of yours?"

Ichigo scratched the back of his head as he looked to the side, "Actually no. I don't think so."

Kisuke sighed heavily, "Okay I'm not really surprised you don't. But we are here for training right? So now your first training objective will be to learn the name of your Zanpakutō. To do this I will have to… endanger your life, your Zanpakutō will respond to that and call out to you."

"Okay… so how do we go about that?"

Kisuke chuckled darkly, "Like this."

In a flash Kisuke lunged at Ichigo and the teen had to block Beniheme as it came close to chopping him in half. Pushing back Ichigo took the chance to back away.

"Hey what the hell!? Don't charge at me like that without warning!"

Kisuke smiled like a man possessed, "Well then I suggest you get ready or else I'll chop you to pieces!"

He charged him again and instead of taking a stance Ichigo turned and ran, now the two looked like little kids running around with Kisuke laughing like a mad man while swinging his sword left and right after Ichigo.

"Get back here!" Kisuke yelled still laughing.

This went on for another short moment until Kisuke got tired of it and stopped causing Ichigo to stop as well. He dashed at the teen this time and Ichigo blocked, but Kisuke frowned as Ichigo was still hesitating and was not even putting his all in guarding. Kisuke then began to fight a bit more seriously to see if this would change but it didn't. Ichigo was not doing anything right, all he did was guard weakly, whenever Kisuke purposely gave him an opening he didn't take it and when he had enough time he would simple jump and run to avoid him.

Kisuke stopped and sighed heavily, "Stop. Enough with the running will you? You block my strikes weakly and don't even try to get a hit in on me. On top of that you hesitate and behave as if you are afraid of me."

Ichigo growled a bit, "Only because I can't fight you the way I am now. I'm simply not strong enough and I know you got experience."

"So?" Kisuke asked harshly. "It doesn't matter in the slightest. You will be going up against people who will try kill you without a second thought, they will not hesitate they will not run. Therefore _you_ must not hesitate and you must not run. I suggest you get your ass in gear and fight me like I'm your enemy Ichigo because if you don't then _I_ will not hesitate… I _will_ kill you."

Right then Ichigo saw the darkest look he had ever seen on the man's face. Kisuke rushed forward once more and instantly Ichigo's battle instincts kicked in and he took up a stance holding his sword at the ready. As their blades met Ichigo pushed back with as much strength as he could muster, just enough to actually push Kisuke back, as soon as he was clear Ichigo rushed in and placed Kisuke on the defensive.

And thus the training begins, Kisuke would make sure he got Ichigo ready for what's to come. He absolutely won't allow him to be killed.

TO BE CONTINUED…

* * *

Urusai- shut up.

Hai- Yes or right.

Taichou- Captain or commander.

So did you guys like it? I liked doing that last part with Kisuke getting deadly serious there. I just love it when he shows that side of him. And did you see what I did there with Lucy? Yes she is capable of using the power of Regulus at will, I think it'll be a valuable asset. Many more to come and let me tell you guys, this shit be hard coming up with some of this stuff takes time to think over and time to put it all together in the best way. Anyway chapter five is in the works and I will see you next time.

Thanks for reading.


End file.
